Grade the take: Former first-round bust warns Vikings fans about J.J. McCarthy

Johnny Football has some takes, and he has a podcast! While the NFL story has already been written about 2012 Heisman Trophy winner and former first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2014, Johnny Manziel continues to be newsworthy. This time, Manziel is popping off about his thoughts on the Minnesota Vikings' quarterback situation brewing between Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy.

This is not exactly a takedown of McCarthy, but rather an uplifting thought about Darnold. Manziel, who crossed paths with Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown during his brief time in Cleveland, thinks Darnold has the mental makeup to take advantage of the situation at hand. Thus, he is implying that Darnold is not going to keel over and die with Minnesota.

Manziel questioned if Minnesota was the best landing spot for McCarthy because Darnold's nature.

“I truly feel, based off who Sam Darnold is in that room, whoever comes to Minnesota, if they do indeed go with a quarterback [in the draft], is gonna have their hands full with Sam Darnold. I know that may raise a little bit of red flags and raise a couple heads up off the table, but Sam Darnold can play football. That guy can sling the rock, he was drafted where he was for a reason, and he’s been waiting for a situation like this.”

While I commend Manziel for not giving up on Darnold just yet, I have. He is probably the one quarterback I have been the most wrong about in my professional writing career. I overlooked the reckless nature in which Darnold plays, just because he made a bland USC Trojans team interesting. Darnold is now joining his fourth NFL franchise since going No. 3 overall to the New York Jets in 2018.

Here is the entire clip of Manziel and Kurt Benkert discussing the potential Vikings fit for McCarthy.

While I think there is some merit to Manziel's take, I am happier his name was attached to it first.

Johnny Manziel throws out this reckless Sam Darnold-J.J. McCarthy take

Although I wouldn't say McCarthy is the safest of the six first-round quarterbacks, he feels like one of the least likely to bust. Drake Maye and Michael Penix Jr. offer much wider variance, and therefore, potentially lower floors. Jayden Daniels could bust due to organizational failure. Caleb Williams could fail to live up to the hype because of what is between his ears. Bo Nix went to the Denver Broncos...

I had McCarthy as QB4 on my big board for many reasons. The upside Daniels, Maye and Williams all offer are better than what McCarthy can provide as a glorified game manager. I did have him ahead of Penix and Nix, although Atlanta valued Penix more as a backup than Minnesota did McCarthy as a starter. And that right there is where I think there is some method to the madness with Manziel...

It's been hard living for Darnold pretty much ever since he turned pro. The Jets are forever flightless. He went to the Carolina Panthers right when David Tepper took over the franchise. Nobody is succeeding there now. As far as the San Francisco 49ers are concerned, he did get to work with Kyle Shanahan, but was Brock Purdy's backup last season, a player I compared favorably to McCarthy.

I think Manziel saying that Darnold is going to thrive in this system, since he knows O'Connell and McCown quite well from their time in Cleveland together, that is going to prevent McCarthy from seeing the field any sooner than expected. He is sort of pro-ready, but he really isn't. McCarthy isn't going to make the same boneheaded mistakes as Darnold; he is just not going to make plays either.

That kind of is the thing I keep going back to. You have to applaud people for having the courage to have bold takes, especially if they are ones like that this could blow in their face like surely this one Manziel made certainly could. To me, I think the Vikings are going to be just good enough to keep Darnold out there longer that even we expect. This could unfortunately stunt McCarthy's growth.

Overall, I think there are worse takes to be had. No, I am not a believer in Darnold by any means. Been there, done that. However, I think for as good of a draft as the Vikings had, I tend to believe they are going to screw this up ever so slightly. McCarthy should be just fine as their quarterback of the future, but no, I don't think we will have a definitive about him one way or another after his first NFL season.

Manziel might be onto something. I doubt it, but it is not the strangest take I have ever heard before.

Grade: C for Cleveland Browns