This past weekend the football world finally got a look at rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel in his first NFL preseason action.  Manziel was one of the most talked about college players of the last couple years, almost reaching Tim Tebow levels.  He made headlines each and every week in college for on the field play and off the field shenanigans.  And for the past couple months we’ve heard nothing but his crazy off the field antics so its good to FINALLY be able to talk football.  

As of now Manziel is still the back up in Cleveland behind veteran Brian Hoyer, who played well last season before getting injured.  In the first game against the Lions I’m sure many Lions fans were hoping to see Manziel play lights out and take Hoyer’s spot immediately.  Unfortunately that isn’t exactly what happened.  

Hoyer and Manziel both played just ok actually, you can find wholes in both of their games and honestly you see why the Browns drafted a quarterback high and why Manziel is still the backup.  In the case of Hoyer he made good decisions for the most part, but I saw a couple passes where he wasn’t very accurate.  Now in the case for both guys I saw a lot of dropped passes especially from veteran Miles Austin. But I saw Hoyer over throw a pass or two which may come with him getting used to live action again after his season ending injury last season.  

Manziel made a couple nice passes and you saw his ability to improvise a couple times throughout the game.  For example on his very first series they ran a quarterback option he decided to keep.  He also decided to duck his head down when three Lions defenders were coming straight for him.  On one hand you have to love the fearlessness and willingness to sacrifice his body for the team.  That attitude is great for running back receivers you know position players but not your franchise quarterback.  We learned that lesson in Washington the hard way with Robert Griffin III. 

There was also another third down play where he where he decided to run instead of hitting the wide open check down right.  His decision making is still pretty questionable and in the NFL you want the best decision maker at quarterback.  Especially with a guy like Manziel sitting him for now and letting him learn may save him from injury.  Give him time to learn to hit that check down route or slide instead of taking that unnecessary hit.  

At the end of the day its just one preseason game and neither guy got that much time.  Even though we came away unimpressed by Hoyer and Manziel maybe we see drastic improvement as the preseason progresses.  It's too early to make any fantasy decisions just yet since we don't even know who will start or even the weapons they'll have around them.  With Josh Gordon most likley missing a large part of the season this offense is still a mystery.