Bill O’Brien Must Consider Manziel & Bridgewater

Now that the Houston Texans have filled their coaching vacancy with former Penn State University head coach Bill O’Brien, the new coach has some figuring out to do with this team. The biggest thing O’Brien is going to have to figure out is how a team that went 12-4 in 2012 could go 2-14 a season later and lose 14 straight games. It’s baffling that the Texans could really be that bad in such a short amount of time with virtually the same players from a season before.

Bill O’Brien has to right this ship and with the personnel he has at his disposal he can do some good, but he needs to add some pieces and fix problem areas. Two areas that he will need to address in order to have any success are offensive line and quarterback. 

The one that can be addressed in April is quarterback, and with their first overall pick the Texans should forget about getting Jadeveon Clowney and really consider picking either Teddy Bridgewater or Johnny Manziel. 

I have made no secret in other post of my love of Johnny Maziel’s playing style. He is the most exciting college player I ever watched play the game, and he never disappointed. He was always worth the price of admission. The question is will he be able to take that same playing style and be as successful on the college level? 

Of course it’s impossible to tell but all I can go by is what I have seen of Manziel while he played for Texas A&M, and if I am an NFL GM or coach in need of a quarterback with a lot of potential, Manziel has to be considered. 

In two seasons with the Aggies Manziel racked up 9989 yards of total offense between his passing and running ability while scoring an absurd 93 touchdowns. His ability to create plays with his feet, his pocket awareness and his never say die attitude are tailor-made for the NFL game.

And for anyone that says he does not have an NFL caliber arm, in his final college game against Duke in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, Manziel launched a pass 44 yards off of his back foot and hit his receiver in stride perfectly for a touchdown. The pass damn near touched the rafters and he still managed to get it down soon enough for his receiver to be able to put his arm out, catch and score. 

The one knock people have on Johnny Manziel is his size. Manziel is 6’1 and 210Lbs., not exactly Daunte Culpepper. And with all the injuries Robert Griffin III has been suffering since he came into the league there are doubts about his ability to stay healthy. 

Manziel will have to change his game to an extent in the NFL to be successful and stay healthy and as long as he can be allusive like he is now but get out-of-bounds the same way Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick do he will be fine. RG3 is a phenomenal athlete but he gets hurt the way he does not because he is small, but rather because he refuses to go out-of-bounds most of the time or slide.

It’s great that RG3 wants to fight for every inch and yard because they make a difference but he exposes himself to those sorts of hits, he isn’t getting killed in the pocket, it’s when he is scrambling around that he causes his own downfall. Plus, just because a quarterback has size does not mean he’s going to be any good. 

Two of the Texans current quarterbacks are 6’4 217 pound TJ Yates and 6’5 230 pound Matt Schaub, and exactly how is their great size helping them excel? Not very well by all of the pick 6’s and angry fans I have spoken to. Size does not equate to good, talent and the ability to teach yourself how to excel while not getting killed equates to good when you have the ability to scramble. 

As long as Manziel can get about of bounds and slide, the myth that his size will make him a bad NFL quarterback are laughable. Just ask Drew Brees, Doug Flutie and Russell Wilson. 

Teddy Bridgewater looks like a sure fire can’t miss quarterback coming out of this draft. Unlike Manziel, Brigdewater’s game is not flashy, not much showmanship, nothing that makes you go wow; other than his ability to win against teams in bowl games and making opposing defenses look terrible.

Against the 5^th ranked Florida Gators defense in the 2013 Sugar Bowl, Bridgewater led his team to victory on 20-32 passing, 260 yards and two touchdowns to one interception. Bridgewater is a prototypical pocket passer with the ability to run. If Manziel’s game reminds me of RG3, then Bridgewater’s game is more akin to Andrew Luck. They are both pocket passers that have the ability to scramble when all else fails. 

In the last two seasons Bridgewater has passed for 7,688 yards and 58 touchdowns. And his size helps with his draft stock because he is 6’3 and 205 pounds. If he can put on about 15 more pounds of muscle then he is the perfect quarterback. 

Bill O’Brien has some decisions to make about the quarterbacking position on his team because the three he currently has on his depth chart and not three he picked, and if Gary Kubiak’s tenure showed O’Brien anything it’s that those 3 quarterbacks are not the answer. In this new pass friendly NFL the team will only go as far as it’s star quarterback. 

O’Brien needs to sure up his offensive line because they gave up nearly 3 sacks per game this season and ranked 16^th in sacks allowed. The line needs to be much better and O’Brien must address that. 

But with that number 1 overall pick in this year’s draft O’Brien has the chance to find his rookie quarterback and have them both grow together in the NFL and become a potential power house with the weapons they have, the weapons they will acquire and a couple of more players on defense to help J.J. Watt. 

Good Luck Mr. O’Brien and I wish you well Texan fans, you can be much better than the other Texas NFL team that I root for in Dallas, and for that I envy you.