Media souring on Manziel

Like a lot of rookies, Johnny Manziel stumbled through his first NFL start. (USATSI)

After nearly four months of speculating when Johnny Manziel would find his way into the lineup, we're now left wondering how long it will be until he plays himself right out of the league. But that's the nature of the NFL, where knee-jerk reactions reign.

We talked about this phenomenon in The Week in Overreactions.

The one-sentence takeaway: One game shouldn't define Manziel's career, even if that's what seems to be happening.

ESPN analyst and former Steelers running back Merril Hoge looks prescient after proclaiming Sunday morning that Johnny Football had "first-round hype with sixth-round talent," before pointing out a day later that whoever drafted Manziel "needs to be fired."

NFL Films' Greg Cosell, whose knowledge of X's and O's rivals most coaches, has studied Manziel's abysmal game tape against the Bengals. His conclusion: "The problem is Manziel didn't want to stay in the pocket," Cosell wrote on Yahoo.com. "He lacks any feel for the pocket, has almost no pocket patience and discipline and is very quick to move and play what I call 'random football' outside of the structure of the offense."

Sounds a lot like the criticisms leveled at Robert Griffin III, now in his third NFL season.

Cosell also noted that Manziel had an "average arm by NFL standards," and "needs functional space and a clean pocket to step up into throws and drive the ball ... He works hard to put any velocity on his throws."

Meanwhile, NFL Network draft guru Mike Mayock said that, "The only athletic quarterbacks that survive in the NFL are the ones that learn how to win from within the pocket."

Fair criticism, all of it. But here's Mayock in March, after Manziel blew away everyone in attendance at his pro day.

"There's a leap of faith involved from a general manager or team perspective if you want to take this kid in the top 10," Mayock said at the time. "When chaos happens, he's phenomenal. What you have to buy into, if he's a top-10 pick, is that he's going to learn. If you combine his spontaneity with an ability to win from within the pocket, then you've got something unique in today's NFL. If you get that, yeah, he's the No. 1 pick in the draft."

And NFL Network colleague Kurt Warner, also at Manziel's pro day, said, "He showed us he can make all the throws. That deep ball was impeccable. Great touch, good enough velocity and was able to set it out there."

This isn't to call out Mayock, who is one of the media's best talent evaluators, or Warner, who has forgotten more about the quarterback position than we'll ever know. Instead, it's to point out just how easy it is to get caught up in Manziel Mania -- good or bad -- in the moment.

Yes, Manziel was god-awful on Sunday. But he also blew the doors off his pro day workout nine months ago. Does he have a lot to work on? Absolutely. But he's made one start.

"Can he get there with experience? Maybe," Cosell wrote. "But he has a lot to overcome to be a high-level NFL quarterback. He's a small quarterback with average arm strength and almost no pocket skills and discipline at this point."

Which is exactly what he was back in March. It's just that nobody saw it back then.

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: RB DeMarco Murray could be game-time decision, can play without practice



To the many fantasy owners waiting for official word on the Week 16 availability of Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray: You'll probably have to wait until 90 minutes prior to Sunday's kickoff against the Colts."I don't think we'd need to see [Murray] practice," team owner Jerry Jones told the media Tuesday. "I think it's more a question of the condition of the hand at game time and what we can do to protect. Yeah, I think that it's one of those that you want to wait and see just how he is feeling right before the game."Murray underwent surgery Monday evening to fix a broken bone in his left hand. If he can't play in Week 16, Joseph Randle would likely start and have Lance Dunbar continue to fill the role of change-of-pace back.



This doesn't mean that we're going to stop writing about Murray. Of course, everyone will be parsing through every little thing said from now until Sunday, trying to get an inkling of what's going to happen with the game's leading rusher. Just don't panic if Murray doesn't practice on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.Oh, and if you haven't done so already, pick up Randle and Dunbar, in that order. Randle is in line to handle the majority of the carries, including the work down by the goal line, against a middle-of-the-pack run defense. Dunbar has some appeal as a deep PPR flex.