Former Browns quarterbacks making headlines
By Thomas Moore
The Cleveland Browns are still working to find a franchise quarterback while a pair of their former quarterbacks continue to make headlines.
The Cleveland Browns are busy looking toward the future as the club is hosting visits with the top quarterbacks who will be available in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The team met with Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield earlier this week, and the visitor’s log at team headquarters in Berea will be filled with UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, USC’s Sam Darnold and Wyoming’s Josh Allen by the end of next week.
It is all part of the evaluation process as general manager John Dorsey looks to erase more than two decades or horrible quarterback play and finally secure the franchise quarterback the Browns have been searching for since Bernie Kosar.
Cleveland Browns
Speaking of bad quarterback play, two of the players responsible for that streak were back in the news on Wednesday.
First up is Robert Griffin III, who reportedly has agreed to a one-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens, according to NFL.com.
The Ravens, who were in the market for a backup quarterback to Joe Flacco, brought Griffin in for a workout last week – no word on whether or not the earth moved – and decided to sign Griffin to a deal.
Griffin, who did not play last season after being released by the Browns, spent the 2016 season with the Browns. The club signed him at the behest of head coach Hue Jackson, who also helped influence the decision to pass on a quarterback in the 2016 NFL Draft.
In just one season with the Browns, Griffin went down with an injury in the season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles and would only start five games. He finished his Browns tenure having completed 59 percent of his passes for just two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Oddly enough, he is the last Browns quarterback to lead the team to a win, an overtime victory over the San Diego Chargers on Christmas Eve of 2016.
Next up is Johnny Manziel, who appeared on the Dan Patrick Show and decided it was as good a time as any to throw some blame the Browns way for the way things worked out in Cleveland:
"If Cleveland did any of their homework they would have known I wasn't a guy who came in every day and watch film. I wasn't a guy who really knew the X's and O's of football." - Johnny Manziel on @dpshow
— Andrew Perloff (@andrewperloff) April 4, 2018
To his credit, Manziel followed up the appearance with a Tweet accepting his role in the tragic drama:
Draft a QB in the first round and put him into a toxic Quarterback room vs. what it was like my second year with McCown. COMPLETELY different situation. It’s all about the right fit and mine in Cleveland wasn’t right. That’s just the facts. I also have nobody to blame but myself https://t.co/fuFmtG4vUz
— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) April 4, 2018
The Browns selected Manziel in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, the worst first-round selection in the franchise history. And that is saying a lot for a team that has also used first-round picks on the likes of Brandon Weeden, Brady Quinn, William Green, Craig Powell, Mike Junkin and Clifford Charlton, just to name a few.
Manziel would make eight starts for the Browns, winning just two of them, while completing just 57 percent of his passes, with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions.
He also made more headlines off the field than on it, an exhaustive list that is not worth repeating here.
In a cruel twist of irony, Griffin and Manziel have combined for two of the past three wins by the Browns. (Think about that one for a moment.)
Next: Browns draft profile: Mason Rudolph
The best part of all this is that if Dorsey gets it right come draft weekend, then all the talk and all the nonsense of the past 20-plus years can finally be put to rest.
And won’t that be a grand day, Browns fans?