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Mortensen: Browns have 90% moved on from Manziel


Klecko73isGod

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http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2015/4/1/8328513/espns-chris-mortensen-browns-90-percent-done-with-manziel

 

The Browns are a dumpster fire. Money quote: "When they were putting together half of a new offensive staff, Manziel's name barely even came up in conversation."

 

 

 

Would it be an offseason without national media members weighing in on the Browns' futility?

ESPN's Chris Mortensen became the latest expert to express his views on Johnny Manziel, Ray Farmer, and Textgate in a guest appearance on ESPN's Mike & Mike radio show on Tuesday.

Mortensen took a fairly pessimistic stance on the current state of affairs in Berea. According to the ESPN reporter, the Browns have largely moved on from Manziel, Farmer's reputation is damaged, and the first four weeks of the season could be treacherous without a general manager at the helm.

Several other prominent members of the media (looking at you, JLC) have dished out criticism of the Browns in the past year, but Mortensen's words carry considerable weight.

Mortensen began the Browns segment by talking about the club's commitment to Manziel:

"I think about 90 percent that they have moved on [from Manziel] in their own minds except that they really don't know who they're going to get when Johnny leaves rehab, which has been an extended stay — a two-month stay. He should be getting out sometime in the first week of April if they're satisfied that he's ready to go out and get into society and that whatever deep-rooted problems that he had has been addressed. OK, now he's part of your depth chart. You have 
Josh McCown
."

The ESPN NFL Insider then delved into the Browns' fascination with Eagles quarterbackSam Bradford.

"Yes, the Browns were the team, with the second first round pick, 19th pick, that talked to the 
Rams
 about that pick in trying to acquire Sam Bradford. But there was no quarterback they could send to St. Louis in return. 
Nick Foles
 was the obvious one and Bradford is somebody that the Eagles and [head coach] Chip Kelly have 
Mark Sanchez
 as a placeholder until Sam Bradford is healthy, and so I don't think Bradford is going to be available. They would like him to sign an extension, something he wouldn't have done had he gone to Cleveland. So I don't see why Cleveland could sit there and give up a first-round draft pick for somebody who's not inclined to sign an extension. All of these things are in discussion. If we were sitting around the living room, we'd be kicking all this stuff around."

Mortensen ended his view on the Browns' quarterback situation with this interesting nugget of information:

"The bottom line is that 
Johnny Manziel's
 future with the Browns has been in question. When they were putting together half of a new offensive staff, Manziel's name barely even came up in conversation."

If Mortensen's reporting is correct, this is a telling piece of intel. If the Browns have written off Manziel as a quarterback, how far will they go to acquire one in the upcoming NFL Draft?

Speaking of the draft, Mortensen explained the NFL's decision not to take away picks from the Browns for Textgate.

Some NFL teams are reportedly frustrated that the Browns didn't receive a stiffer punishment. However, in Mortensen's eyes, the punishment was just right.

"I don't think it was lighter. [With] Ray Farmer's reputation, forever, when people look up Ray Farmer, they're going to see that he was suspended for four games ... People will say 'It's during the time when they don't do much.' In September, well, we don't know who their starting quarterback will be, what if they lose their staring quarterback? What if they lose their left tackle, 
Joe Thomas
? What if you lose a couple of other players? You always have something that comes up that involves the general manager. Now, they're fortunate that Bill Kuharich and Ron Hill both have been in that seat before, that they can work through that. But, to me, Ray Farmer loses a month's pay, he has his reputation stained, probably forever. His text messages that went to a coach or two in the booth were deemed not to be a competitive matter, kind of like you would say, 'Why aren't we throwing deep?' Shouldn't we be playing #2?' ... I don't think it merited anything greater than this."

Mortensen brings up a valid point. An NFL general manager is less active in September, but Farmer might miss out on critical decisions during his suspensions. Also, Farmer's reputation is forever damaged. However, Farmer's image can certainly be repaired if the Browns win under his watch.

As a whole, Mortensen's words are a bit sobering. Manziel's opportunity might have already passed him by, and Farmer's transgressions might cost the team more than just $250,000.

What will the future bring for these troubled men? Only time will tell, but the upcoming NFL Draft will certainly lend some clues.

The full audio from Mortensen's guest appearance is available here. H/T to DBN commenter Bizono for the story idea and to Randy Miller of NJ.com for the transcript of a portion of the interview.

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Not really. Haslam just got here. Our owner has been actively involved and stupid for fifteen years. Randy Lerner wasn't the greatest owner but you can do far worse than benign neglect.

 

 

I know Woody is far from being the best owner in the NFL but the Jets have been the playoffs 6 times in the 15 years he has owned the club as opposed to 8 times in their 40 years of existence prior to his ownership. 

 

The Jets haven't been to the playoffs in 4 years now. OK. They won two playoff games that year. 8 teams, 1/4 of the league, currently have longer playoff droughts. 16 teams, half the league, have gone longer since winning a playoff game than the Jets, including 3 that have playoff win droughts of 20 or more years and another two that haven't won a playoff game this millennium. 

 

Things could be significantly worse. 

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Not a bad idea. If Manziel stops partying and remembers the plays he can be better than Geno and Fitz.

Better odds that Geno and Fitz stop being bleh football players, than Manziel suddenly not being a piece of sh*t.

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How do you 90% move on from a player?

If Manziel never takes another snap in CLE, Mortenson takes the credit. If Manziel becomes a hero, Mortenson again tells is he never fully doubted Manziel n that deep down Inside, he always thought Manziel can become a legitimate NFL QB.

Win win. That's how.

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Would you support the jets getting Manziel if he killed dogs instead of partying?

I was one of the most vocal members of this site criticizing the Vick acquisition. Even during the season, I was rooting for Geno to start and for us to keep losing, rather than seeing Vick "spark" the offense and save Rex. 

 

So, you aren't making much of a point with this response. 

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I was one of the most vocal members of this site criticizing the Vick acquisition. Even during the season, I was rooting for Geno to start and for us to keep losing, rather than seeing Vick "spark" the offense and save Rex. 

 

So, you aren't making much of a point with this response. 

 

Sounds like you hated Rex more than the dog killer.

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I know Woody is far from being the best owner in the NFL but the Jets have been the playoffs 6 times in the 15 years he has owned the club as opposed to 8 times in their 40 years of existence prior to his ownership. 

 

The Jets haven't been to the playoffs in 4 years now. OK. They won two playoff games that year. 8 teams, 1/4 of the league, currently have longer playoff droughts. 16 teams, half the league, have gone longer since winning a playoff game than the Jets, including 3 that have playoff win droughts of 20 or more years and another two that haven't won a playoff game this millennium. 

 

Things could be significantly worse. 

 

You need to shut it on up, sir.

 

The Jets are the worstest and I refuse to hear different. 

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The kid has talent.  If he can clean himself up and commit himself to improving his game then he could be a decent back up and perhaps one day get that one opportunity in game to show he can play.

I don[t see the body---or the arm, for that matter. Saw a lot of wobble in his throws last year.

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Manziel is not an nfl player even sober-

Pettine was an ok guy, don't wish I'll upon him but also neither luck. Cleveland's tortured fan base makes the Jets' look like the Yankees comparatively.

The Browns were one of the FEW teams that realistically considered Manziel a potential franchise QB. I saw him as too small and too much of a me guy to be an effective leader, unless it was leading their best player WR Josh Gordon to a year long suspension. Johnny came, Johnny saw, Johnny Walker Red was consumed as was his brief career.

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