theENGLISHseahawk":ord1bgve said:
The best way to describe Manziel came from a Rams fan I spoke to in April... where he basically said he plays the game like he's saying "Oh shit, Oh shit, Oh shit..." in his head after the snap. It's a kind of frantic, winging it style that's unconventional, exciting, but loaded with question marks.
I think it might come off that way because we're not used to athleticism that comes in a certain package. Manziel is legitimately fast, just without long limbs and grace so it looks a little herky jerky. There's nothing inherently more suspect about it, though. When he gets into open space he runs away from college DBs. His 40 is going to be around Russell Wilson's, 4.5 or so. He's not outsmarting people, he's an athlete.
Reminds me of a TrueHoop article on ESPN this year after Jeremy Lin scored 38 on San Antonio. The writer basically said the exact same thing, Lin was running around like a chicken with his head cut off, maybe trying harder than other players, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up. Fact is, at Lin's draft combine tests, he had a faster first step than Derrick Rose and John Wall, as well as faster 3/4 court speed. The Rocket's GM has accelerometers on their jerseys and Lin's the fastest player they've ever measured. He's not trying harder he's just more athletic. Manziel's not frantic, he's athletic.
Manziel has another thing going for him: Giant hands. Russell Wilson just said in his interview this week that he thinks QBs have to have big hands. To prevent fumbles, make accurate passes, get perfect spin on the ball, and to be able to control the ball in rain and other inclement weather (e.g., late in the season), the bigger the better. Wilson said his hands are the equivalent of a dude 6'7"[1]. Despite being short like Wilson, Manziel's hands are the same size. A lot more people seem to be noticing this about Manziel pre-draft than they did with Wilson.
It's funny to see that Manziel is almost a Wilson clone, but he's going to go 1 or 2 in the draft. What an influence media planted perceptions play in outcomes--lucky for us in this case!
[1] When people say Kaepernick is more athletic than Wilson, I remember that Wilson has much larger hands and a better 10 yard split on his 40. Wilson's superior elusiveness and ball control are real athletic traits and Kap isn't the slam dunk better QB athlete it might appear at first glance.