Taking a look at five players who could have been taken by the Cleveland Browns instead of Johnny Manziel in the 2014 NFL Draft.
Johnny Manziel appears to be on his way out of Cleveland. If there was ever a decision to be made on keeping him, he went out and made the decision himself.
He consistently betrayed the trust and second chances given to him by Browns leadership, which led to more turnover in Berea. This is not to blame Manziel for the firings, but if he took his job seriously he may have been able to lead this team to greater things than a 3-13 season.
The man who drafted Manziel, Ray Farmer, was part of the turnover, which means the draft may actually go well in 2016. This may be naive optimism, but Farmer’s first round selections of both Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel in 2014 set the Browns back several years.
The Gilbert pick was bad, but the Manziel one is what fans will always remember. The team was looking for a quarterback and took the one least prepared to be a starter in the NFL.
This is no surprise to fans of the Browns, but this does not lessen the frustration.
The following five players should have been easy choices for Farmer and the Browns to draft in 2014. Since the pick was 22nd overall, this post will deal with players who could have been realistically selected in that spot.
The first player on this list is one who may have finally brought some stability to the quarterback position in Cleveland.
Next: Derek Carr
Derek Carr was selected to the Pro Bowl in his second season in the NFL. Let that sink in for a second.
Carr, who was selected 36th overall by the Oakland Raiders, is helping turn around a franchise that has struggled for a long time. The franchise part sounds familiar to Browns fans, but the young quarterback turning things around is something only found in dreams.
Taking Manziel instead of Carr is mind-boggling. This is easy to say in hindsight, but fans shared similar opinions when the draft was taking place. Carr was a pro-style quarterback who seemed NFL ready, compared to Manziel who was the prototypical college quarterback who found success just because of athleticism.
Oakland is lucky to have found such a talent, and are being rewarded by Carr’s consistency. He has started all 32 games in his two years as a Raider, throwing for a total of 7,257 yards and 53 touchdowns in that span.
The Raiders did go 3-13 in his first season, but improved to 7-9 in 2015. This is the exact opposite of the Browns, who surprised everyone by going 7-9 in 2014, only to drop to 3-13 in 2015.
This is not entirely due to Manziel, but Carr proved that solid quarterback play is the first step to helping turn a team’s fortunes around. By starting every game, the Raiders could spend time focusing on other positions that needed improvement.
Carr should continue the turnaround in Oakland, while the next player on this list should do the same for his team.
Next: Teddy Bridgewater
Not only did the Browns pass up on Derek Carr, but they passed up on a prospect who was labeled as a top QB option leading up to the draft.
In his senior season at Louisville in 2013, Teddy Bridgewater threw for 3,970 yards and 31 touchdowns, with only four interceptions. He also led Lousiville to a Sugar Bowl victory over Florida in his sophomore season.
He seemed to be the top quarterback prospect coming into the draft, and was even labeled as the possible top pick at certain times leading up to the draft. But as it often goes, his stock went up and down before he was ultimately drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the 32nd overall pick.
Bridgewater was named rookie of the year in 2014, and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2016. As with Carr, seeing the Pro Bowl honors so early in Bridgewater’s career will haunt Browns fans for years to come.
But unlike Carr, he has not put up great numbers from a statistical point of view. He only has 28 passing touchdowns in two years, but the inclusion of Adrian Peterson on the roster, at least this season, may account for a lack of big passing numbers.
Whether Pro Bowl level success would have been found by Bridgewater on the Browns will never be known, but he at least has the look of an NFL quarterback so far. He would have been an easy choice to start, which would have taken away the countless Manziel-related distractions. That in itself would have been better than a winning season.
Next: Kelvin Benjamin
By trading down and selecting Justin Gilbert with the eighth overall pick, the Browns once again passed up on some great wide receivers. Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, and Odell Beckham Jr. could all be members of the Cleveland Browns, but management decided (for some insane reason) to go in a different direction.
When Manziel was selected, there was still another top receiving talent on the board in Kelvin Benjamin. He shined at Florida State and was selected 28th overall by the Carolina Panthers.
Isn’t it crazy that the top teams in the league always seem to draft great players late in the first round? Funny how that works.
While Josh Gordon missed most of the 2014 season, Benjamin put up great numbers in his rookie season. He had 1,008 receiving yards and caught nine touchdowns in the regular season, and also had two touchdowns in a playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
The Browns have consistently passed up on receivers in the first round of the draft, leaving fans to watch these dominant athletes rack up big numbers every season. Imagine if the Browns had Julio Jones on one side and Odell Beckham Jr. on another. There would be no need to go out and throw money at Dwayne Bowe if that were the case.
Benjamin did miss the entire 2015 season due to an ACL tear, but he should continue to go over 1,000 receiving yards each season as long as Cam Newton is throwing him the ball.
Next: Jeremy Hill
After the disaster Trent Richardson turned out to be, fans may have freaked out if the Browns selected a running back in the first round in 2014. But the Browns would not have been faulted for drafting Jeremy Hill with the 22nd pick.
The initial backlash may have been strong from fans, but once he got on the field the hesitations would have faded away. Even if they took Hill with the 22nd pick, Derek Carr was still on the board when the Browns had the 35th pick and took Joel Bitonio.
Hill ran for over 1,300 yards and had 16 touchdowns in 2013 at LSU, and translated that into instant success in the NFL. He ran for 1,124 yards and nine touchdowns in 2014. In 2015 he only ran for 794 yards, but had 11 touchdowns. The Browns ran for five touchdowns all season.
Hill would have easily been the Browns’ first option in the running game. Drafting him also would have prevented the selection of Terrance West, who did not even make it two full seasons in Cleveland, which seems to be a trend for players and coaches alike.
The running game now consists of Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson, who is more of a receiving back than a hard-nosed runner. This means the team will likely be drafting another running back in this year’s draft. There is also the potential of signing a back in free agency, which may actually be a real possibility now that the Browns hired a coach like Hue Jackson. After working with Hill in Cincinnati, Jackson should be able to recognize talent at the running back position, which is something that has been missing from this franchise for a long time.
Next: Allen Robinson
Kelvin Benjamin was not the only tall receiver available to the Browns with the 22nd pick. Allen Robinson, 6-foot-3, was still on the board and will be heading to his first Pro Bowl this weekend.
After a tough rookie season, Robinson was tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns this year with 14. He also finished the season with 1,400 receiving yards.
Besides Gary Barnidge and his 1,043 receiving yards, as he is a tight end, the Browns’ leading receiver was Travis Benjamin with 966 yards. That is not an unimpressive total, but Robinson’s dominant production, in an arguably worse offense in Jacksonville, shows that players with natural ability will find a way to succeed in the NFL.
Robinson would have been able to be the team’s top option in 2014 while Josh Gordon was out, and would have once again been the go-to receiver in 2015. Defenses would fear the thought of having to cover both receivers in 2016, if Gordon is indeed granted reinstatement.
But Robinson teamed up with Blake Bortles, another 2014 draft pick, in Jacksonville to begin the turnaround there. Even the lowly Jaguars understood the key to drafting a young quarterback, which is to pair him up with a top receiving talent, allowing both to work together and mature together from the start. A much different philosophy than saying, “Hey Johnny, just go out there and try not to get hurt.”
All the above players look like great picks in hindsight, but could have still been realistic picks, and should have been, at the time of the 2014 NFL Draft. Let’s hope a post like this does not need to be written in two years about the 2016 draft.