The "Hoyer's attitude" thing was a derivitive of his belief that Manziel was a waste of the Browns effort, that Manziel wasn't taking preparation seriously, and therefore expecting Manziel to actually beat him out for playing time.
Whatever his excuse, it was unprofessional and detrimental to the team.
On top of that, it was a crappy excuse. The coaches didn't take that job from Hoyer - he
gave it away with lousy performance. I recall postiing around the middle of last year that his completion percentage with the Browns matched
exactly his college career completion percentage. The guy was just inaccurate, and that was on
him.
The bizarre framing of Manziel's failure as Hoyer's fault never made sense, and a great reason for me to dismiss Ray Farmer as a hack a year before many of you dismissed him.
Agreed. But equally bizarre is the framing of Hoyer's failure as being the fault of someone beside himself.
I believe the past calendar year has given definitive evidence that Hoyer, who unlike McCown still has 5+ more years of football in the tank, had a damn good point. Giving Manziel "franchise face" status cost a lot of people their jobs.
I love you man, but this exemplifies the mindset that, unfortunately, came to dominate discussions surrounding our QB's. It was not a question of picking Manziel over Hoyer, or vice-versa. Rather, the question was whether
either of those guys were the right one.
It was entirely possible to dislike Hoyer's performance without being enamored of Manziel.
In any case, does it really matter if your "bridge QB" has five years left in the tank? A bridge guy is for one year, or two tops, and guys like Hoyer are a dime a dozen.
Chances are, Hoyer is going to remain the bridge QB for the Texans developmental QB again next year as well. He might finally have someone worth mentoring. I'd like to see if Hoyer is able to mentor a guy like Hackenburg, drafted in the second or third round.
For me, this encapsulates the exact reason I'd rather have McCown. We
know
McCown is both willing and able to mentor a young QB. Whether it was Manziel or whomever else we acquired, we knew that bridge QB was needed to help the guy learn the NFL game. I think Hoyer is
still, in his mind at least, a starting quality QB who wants to win the job outrigt, and will be unhappy if he is benched. Now,
maybe he'll change his tune, but that's nothing more than a vague hope at this point.
[
Until then, we are talking about a guy who ended up in the top 15-25 of starting QBs, yet again.
15-25? That's quite a range. And while I might want that guy at 15, that guy at 25 can take a hike.
A guy in his prime, not the shit you were forced to watch this year. Some people have fine wine tastes for the position, I get that... I just don't know how you end up a Browns fan demanding "top 10 play or bust." Hoyer was probably the best you had in the past decade.
The fact that Hoyer is in his prime is part of the problem. He is a low-ceiling guy who seems like he makes excuses for himself whenever things go wrong. It's someone
else's fault. And I think that makes him ill-suited to be a bridge QB
and mentor to a young QB prospect.
Tl;Dr
Who would you rather have mentoring Goff - McCown, or Hoyer? To me, it isn't close.
