Since Johnny Manziel left Texas A&M to enter the NFL Draft, there has been some criticism of his ability to make it in the pros. Former Buccaneers head coach and ESPN’s analyst Jon Gruden sees more of a special player in Manziel. After watching some of his plays in person and on film, Gruden made the notion that Manziel reminds him of Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
Johnny Football and Favre he says both have a gun slinging approach when throwing the ball in tight windows against defenders and will not hesitate to use their athleticism to extend a play. “It takes courage to pull the ball down and reverse field and do some of the crazy things that Favre and Manziel do,” Gruden told USA Today. “There’s going to be consequences when sometimes it doesn’t work out, but it takes a tremendous amount of guts and courage to go make a play when there’s nothing there instead of throwing the ball away. I don’t think anything is going to be pure in the pocket. He has his own style of playing quarterback.”
Even Favre had some admirable comments about this young man, “I haven’t watched him much, but one game I watched for like three quarters was the Ole Miss game,” Favre said. It was a game in October where Manziel threw for 346 yards, ran for 124 (including two touchdowns) and led Texas A&M to a 41-38 comeback victory. “I almost thought I was watching film of a young Brett Favre,” Favre said. “I didn’t think I did a lot of things well in college at Southern Miss, but he did and I liked the attitude of ‘whatever it takes’ — from that standpoint, I liked him.”
Manziel could be the next face of the NFL if he could throw more accurately, stay healthy, and not turn an opportunity into a margin of errors. In a 2 year span Manziel threw 22 interceptions and had 41 sacks. That is something he has to improve on if he wants to have a long career in the NFL.
“Nobody is perfect, but you certainly don’t want your quarterback flying around during the week. You don’t want to read about your quarterback in the newspaper every day of the week,” Gruden said. “I think he’s learned a lesson, but he’s got to prove that. “I mean he ran for 1,400 yards in the SEC. He’s got big hands and big feet and he’s got more guts than most guys have. “The NFL draft is two weeks away and it looks like maybe Manziel will be picked up 7th in the first round.
