@the-gipper said:

Quoting a college QBs statistics is not necessarily that illustrative of that players ability to make is as a QB in the NFL.

I suggest that most of the most renowned QB busts in the past had outstanding college stats....Ryan Leaf, Jamarcus Russell et al.

Now, to me JFFs biggest asset is his chutzpah. It has to be given his frame. His innate football intellect goes hand in hand with that.

I agree with you that good college stats do not always translate to NFL QB success. Virtually every QB ever drafted had good numbers in college. But that wasn't the point of my post. I was just trying to point out that Manziel's passing and stats are on par or better with the other QBs in the draft and are better than he gets credit for. For example, Manziel had superior passing stats in virtually every category compared to Bortles (completion %, yards, yds/att, TD/INT ratio, passer rating) but I doubt that was mentioned at all in any media outlet. All they focused on was "he can't run like that and take hits in the NFL" (which I agree with), but completely ignored his passing game.

Hello all, this is my first post on this message board. As my username suggests, I'm an A&M grad that is the newest Browns fan after the Manziel pick. I grew up in Houston and the Oilers left town when I was around 10 years old, so I didn't follow the NFL much after that and got into A&M football. With Manziel heading to Cleveland, I now have an NFL team to follow. Really looking forward to it, and from what I can tell browsing some topics, this looks like a great forum.

I'm posting this topic because I'd like to talk about Manziel's passing ability, which is often overlooked and under-discussed. If someone didn't know who Johnny Manziel is, they'd watch ESPN (particularly that fake hair bumbling idiot Kiper) and assume Manziel is simply an athlete playing QB who can't throw, someone in the mold of Denard Robinson or Eric Crouch. But if you look at the stats, that couldn't be further from the truth. What's really remarkable about these stats is A&M had a top 10 strength of schedule each year in the most difficult conference in the country.

Here are Manziel's 2012 (RS freshman) passing stats, with the national rank in parentheses beside it.

Completion % - 68.0 (T-8th)

Yards - 3706 (T-15th)

Yards/att - 8.5 (T-12th)

TD - 26 (T-24)

INT - 9

TD/INT - 2.9

QB rating - 155.3 (15th)

His 2013 stats are even better.

Completion % - 69.9 (4th)

Yards - 4114 (8th)

Yards/att - 9.6 (4th)

TD - 34 (T-4)

INT - 13

TD/INT - 2.6

QB rating - 172.9 (3rd)

I've never seen or heard any of those numbers from any form of sports media. They all seem to feed off of each other and continue the mindless banter about how Manziel won't be able to run in the NFL, how he has a weak arm and can't make all the throws, etc. It's ridiclous. I'm not sure if any of y'all were able to watch his pro day workout, but it was incredibly impressive.

I understand why they focus on his running/scrambling ability. It's rare for a QB and he has created some incredible plays by doing just that. But to completely ignore the passing part of his game is an injustice to Johnny. I can see the casual fan not understanding how good of a passer he is, but for these experts, it's their job to mention that stuff.

I've watched every college snap from Manziel and he's one of the most talented football players I've ever seen. Fiercely competitive and hates to lose more than anything. I think y'all got a great one and I can't wait to see how he develops to prove the naysayers wrong.