CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Browns have been 'alarmed' by some of Johnny Manziel's antics since the draft -- especially a photo of him rolling up a $20 bill in the bathroom of a bar -- and some in the organization feel he's lost ground in the quarterback competition heading into camp, sources have told Northeast Ohio Media Group.
After the suspicious photo of Manziel tightly rolling up the bill surfaced on July 7, Browns coach Mike Pettine called Manziel from his vacation in Hawaii and addressed it, he told NEOMG on Monday. The conversation was 'positive' but he also planned to talk to Manziel face-to-face when he arrived for the rookie portion of camp on Wednesday.
Manziel regressed in practice after the first week of organized team activities, and some in the organization attributed it to too much jet-setting and not enough dedication to the playbook.
Team officials had bought into Manziel's pre-draft promises to tone down the partying and leave his frat-boy lifestyle back in College Station, Texas, and they've been stunned by his non-stop antics, sources said.
Since they traded up to draft him in the first round, No. 22 overall, on May 8, he's partied hard in New York City, Las Vegas twice, Los Angeles with hip-hop star Drake, Austin, Tex., Houston, Tex. and at pop star Justin Bieber's house in Beverly Hills with the likes of world boxing champ Floyd Mayweather.
The romp across the country -- complete with photos of him drinking magnums of champagne and spraying it around clubs -- has been completely opposite of what Manziel told the Browns during his private workout for them at Texas A&M and during his pre-draft visit to Cleveland. It's also been contrary to what he said publicly in the months leading up to the draft and after the Browns traded up to No. 22 to select him.
In an interview with John McLain of the Houston Chronicle in February, Manziel vowed to shed his Johnny Football personna and TMZ lifestyle.
"I was a kid who made some goofball decisions," he said. "That's been part of my journey. Maybe it's part of the whole Johnny Football deal that I'm trying to get away from. I'm trying to show people I've grown up and I've learned from my experiences. I feel like you're a stupid person if you continue to make the same wrong decisions. I don't want to hear, 'Oh, anybody in his situation would have been doing the same thing.' I'm 100 percent responsible for my actions."
He also said, "Johnny Football is the stuff you see on TMZ. There's part of that folktale that goes along with it and tries to twist me into somebody I'm not all the time. I feel like now there's kind of like this frozen food package - a prewrapped, precooked package of who I am.
"Johnny Manziel is the guy that - whether it's Houston, Jacksonville, Cleveland or Oakland - you'll have to drag off that field before I stop playing for those guys. Those are my teammates. Those are my brothers from now on. I'm going to fight until there's no time left on the clock. That's Johnny Manziel.''
That's the Johnny Manziel the Browns thought they were getting, the one that seemed to grow up before the world's eyes in the months leading up to the draft.
Manziel's agent, Erik Burkhardt, shielded him from the spotlight during the pre-draft process, keeping him away from the Super Bowl festivities in New York City and sharply limiting his interviews. Meanwhile, Manziel spent his days and nights working out with quarterback guru and Massillon native George Whitfield in San Diego, where Whitfield honed his skills and improved his pocket presence considerably.
At his Pro Day at Texas A&M, Manziel re-iterated that he was a new man, dedicated to becoming a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
"I just want to let these guys know that my focus is football. This is my life. This is what I love to do. I've never been more dedicated and committed in my entire life. I'm so excited. I understand the challenge and the jump. There's no denying that,'' he told NFL Network. "I want to be one of those (stars) one day. ...whether it's Peyton Manning, whether it's Tom Brady, I see what it takes for them to be great. You have to be dedicated to it 100 percent that way.''
And on draft weekend, Manziel vowed to keep his promise.
"I know I need to put all my time right now into maintaining my life in football and trying to be as good of a quarterback as possible,'' he said. "Everything else is extra and really there's no time for that now. I'm very committed to expanding my knowledge of the game and getting better as a quarterback. That's my focus right now.''
Two weeks later, he boarded a plane for Vegas over Memorial Day Weekend and the perpetual bachelor party was on.
Pettine remained unfazed through most of the twitter and Instagram posts, the inflatable swans, the money phones and the Bieber blowout, but became concerned -- along with everyone else in the organization -- when the bill-rolling photo landed.
In addition to calling Manziel, Pettine got on the horn with some of Manziel's college coaches and was assured he'd buckle down once camp started.
"I know as committed he is to football, once the season starts, it should not be an issue,'' Pettine said. "People who know him have said it will stop.''
Impact on the quarterback competition
But as this week has worn on, Pettine seems to have changed his tune on the quarterback competition.
On Monday, he told cleveland.com that although Brian Hoyer is starting out No. 1 on the depth chart, he views the competition "as open'' and vowed to give Hoyer and Manziel reps with "the same supporting cast'' to make it as fair and even as possible.
By Wednesday afternoon, after meeting with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains, Pettine told a second wave of reporters in one-on-one interviews that Manziel wouldn't be getting reps with the first team offense during the early days of training camp, which begins Saturday.
"Well, they're going to compete, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to take equal time with the ones," Pettine told The Chronicle-Telegram. "Brian is the starting quarterback right now, we can still evaluate Johnny's reps regardless of who he's out there with. I think a lot will be made of, wait a minute, he hasn't been with the (ones). To me, it's something that we can still evaluate, give him a specific grade based on his footwork, how he called the play, what he read during that play — all the stuff that's in his control.
"It doesn't matter what group he's with, he's still getting graded. That'll be a big part of the evaluation, it won't be how he did when he was necessarily with a certain group."
Pettine, who will name his starter before the third preseason game Aug. 23, also cautioned that it will be tough for Manziel beat out Hoyer for the starting job.
"I would say it's a tall task, for a couple reasons," Pettine said. "One, he's a rookie coming in learning the system. It's not like (Miami's Ryan) Tannehill, who came in running his college system. He's learning something that's completely new to him, so he's got all new verbiage and reads and that type of thing working against him.
"And then the guy he's competing with is an NFL veteran who's learned from one of the best in the game, who's very prepared, very focused. It's a very true statement, it will be difficult."
Indeed, Hoyer, who's coming off a torn anterior cruciate ligament, has taken only five days off since returning from his October surgery and is determined to stave off the Heisman Trophy winner, who made a bold proclamation to the Houston Chronicle in February.
"People can call me crazy, and it's not cockiness, (but) I'm going to put myself in (position) to win the Super Bowl every single year," Manziel said. "A 5-10 guy (Russell Wilson) just won the Super Bowl in his second year in the NFL. That's unreal. I want to be the first rookie to win the Super Bowl."
Other sources have said it's still truly an open competition and no one knows how it will play out yet, in part because the club hasn't yet seen Hoyer operate in the new offense in 11-on-11s yet. However, he's been cleared for full action in camp, and the Browns want him to start catching up right away.
Don't bet against Manziel
A source close to Manziel said he's been working hard behind the scenes, bulking up some and even going back out to San Diego to work with Whitfield, who was recently hired as an assistant coach with the 49ers.
"People said all of this stuff about Johnny after he won the Heisman as a freshman, that he was out partying too much,'' said the source. "But he came back even stronger his second year and arguably played better against Alabama and other teams as a sophomore. He'll come into camp with the right mindset -- to be better tomorrow than he is today.''
The source said Manziel made huge strides from his first year to second year at Texas A&M and "he's got to be out there doing something right when the whole world's not watching to make those types of improvements. There are no stories around the weight room. The stories are when he's out with a rock star.
Whitfield, who's no longer allowed to speak at length about Manziel because he works for the 49ers, would at least allow that learning from Hoyer will be the best thing that happens to Manziel.
"Brian Hoyer is going to have a very big impact on Johnny learning how to be a professional,'' said Whitfield. "He's a blue-chip quarterback. Everything Johnny needs to learn from a true professional is there in Brian and Johnny's talked about that. He's learned from him already and what kind of example he sets. Every day he gets to go to work with and sit next to a guy that's done it in Brian.''
Sources said Manziel looked sharp on his first day of practice Thursday and had a good grasp of the plays being run, a sign that he's had his nose in the playbook.
"People will see how hard Johnny works once this thing gets rolling,'' said a source. "He'll get more mature as he goes along. He's 21 and people want him to be 35. I would not count him out.''
This story has been updated.