Johnny Manziel could be “The Next Drew Brees,” ESPN’s Steve Young says
By Chase Ruttig
Feb 2, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; NFL former player Steve Young on the sidelines prior to Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
The lead up to the NFL Draft is never short of hyperbole and forced comparisons by pundits. Whether it be television, radio, newspaper, blogs, or even in the comments or on message boards somebody is overreacting about an college football player’s NFL potential.
After ESPN’s Ron Jaworski labelled Johnny Manziel a “third round talent” earlier this offseason, coworker and fellow former NFL quarterback Steve Young went the other way and complimented Manziel perhaps a bit too much. Young made the comparison to Johnny Manziel and undersized pocket passer Drew Brees recently in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.
"“He’s the guy that seems to really thrive in chaos,” Young stated. “That’s an innate quality that I don’t see very often. I think Johnny is very improvisational. I think that that’s a fun part of the game. The truth is that in the NFL, the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket. That’s the job. So he’s going to have to transition that.”“… That’ll be the challenge for Johnny —,” Young continued. “If he’s willing to do the boring work behind the scenes day in and day out, over years, he can be Drew Brees. He can be guys that have moved around in their careers – Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers could scramble around for 100 yards if he wanted to, but he’s learned the game. That’s what Johnny is going to have to do.”"
It is no surprise that Young is high on Manziel’s potential with both players being scrambling quarterbacks who were both at one point knocked for their size and risk taking tendencies, but surely the analyst can come up with a more accurate comparison than “The Next Drew Brees.” Perhaps a comparison to current Niners starter Colin Kaepernick is more of a logical one for the dual threat superstar that is Johnny Football.