Film Room: Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel and Cleveland's conundrum

Following a 24-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mike Pettine stood on the podium. He furrowed his eyebrows like an embarrassed father. His nose was the color of anger. He spoke honestly, admitting he considered benching starting quarterback Brian Hoyer for rookie first-rounder Johnny Manziel.

Hoyer struggled mightily, completing a career-low 39 percent of his passes on 41 attempts. He threw an interception, too, which he can’t do. Neither he nor the Browns have enough talent to afford mistakes. 

Hoyer doesn’t play outside offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s system, instead going through his progressions as they’re drawn up. Shanahan’s system heavily uses play action passes and quick drops, which can be troubling when Hoyer’s unsure of which coverages he’s seeing. Here’s an example from the Jaguars game in Week 7.

Deep into the third quarter, Hoyer was under center with 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end). Outside, a wide receiver was lined up with a short split. To the left, at a tighter split, another receiver stood outside an inline tight end. The Jaguars double rotated their safeties, shifting down to an eight-man box to defend against the run, leaving a single-high safety.

Hoyer faked a handoff and hit the top of his drop. He immediately scanned the coverage, a pure four under, three-deep zone. In other words, Cover 3.

To the left, where Hoyer looked for his first read, the receiver ran a hook route. He was open after releasing outside and running behind the strong safety. Hoyer moved on to his next read.

In the middle, the wide receiver ran an over route behind the inside linebacker. He, too, was open despite the free safety in the middle of the field. If Hoyer threw him the ball before he ran past the near linebacker, he had, at minimum, a 15-yard gain. The safety was inside the hashes, well off from the receiver. Again, with the ball close to his chest, Hoyer moved onto his next read.

Unsettled, Hoyer didn’t know where to go with the ball. He was in the pocket far too long and eventually pressure would start pouring in. Worried, he looked back to his left at the tight end, who circled back to the middle, raised his hands and pleaded for the ball. Hoyer looked and looked and dumped it off to the running back, the last resort, as the pocket caved.

When Hoyer drifts away from timed progressions, he becomes a different quarterback. His marked efficiency becomes questionable, and he doesn’t move the ball. He settles for the easy throw, regardless of down and distance. Part of this is because he’s unsure of what he’s seeing and doesn’t trust the throws he should make. Another part is his receivers.

His receivers don’t separate from defensive backs. They stick like Velcro. They’re unable to win one-on-one matchups outside the numbers, an area that deviates from the West Coast Offense middle of the field principles that Shanahan has installed, making it difficult to manage second and third downs for Hoyer.

In the same game, the Browns had first-and-10 and the Jaguars, again, showed single-high. It was man coverage on the outside this time, with four zone defenders underneath.

Hoyer faked a handoff on a read play from a diamond pistol set straight out of Texas A&M’s playbook and looked down the middle to hold the backpedaling safety. Outside, two receivers ran double moves, out-and-ups, on each side. Hoyer whipped his head right, where rookie receiver Taylor Gabriel was pressed to the sideline. His feet teetered along the out of bounds line.

At the top of his drop, the ball flew off of Hoyer’s palm and in front of the Jaguars cornerback incomplete. A step behind, Gabriel ran.

Had Gabriel separated from the cornerback and gotten on top of his route, Hoyer’s throw would have been on the money. Hoyer makes mistakes with the ball, as witnessed in the previous couple of weeks as well. However, he’s also able to make plays when they’re needed.

With 10 yards to go from his own six, Hoyer casually took a three-step drop from shotgun. Three receivers ran routes to his left. Two were bunched inside a handful of yards from the trenches. The closest inside ran a spot route that landed him 12 yards in front of Hoyer. The other ran a choppy slant route in between the Cover 3 outside and inside linebackers.

Moving the inside linebacker was key. He was inside the right hash, in Hoyer’s vision, in position to make a play on the throw. Hoyer looked to his far right, at the furthest outside receiver, which caused the inside linebacker to shuffle his feet once, twice. It was just enough to let the slant come in behind him, allowing Hoyer to dart the ball in between the receiver’s numbers, who caught it and crossed the field, past the numbers, for 65 yards.

It was a veteran play by the sixth-year signal-caller out of Michigan State. It’s these kind of plays, whether the offense is struggling to run the ball and set up play action passes or win matchups downfield, that have kept Hoyer starting over Manziel.

Manziel’s known for his hubris, making throws that are far-fetched for Hoyer to attempt, let alone make. For all his confidence, which would bring more explosive plays to an offense devoid of top-tier talent at the moment, he has to improve his footwork to consistently string together throws and improve moving linebackers with his eyes to create openings for receivers in manageable down and distances.

It’s why the Browns went with Hoyer to begin with, even though he has his own fundamental flaws. But after the Jaguars beat them with a rookie first-round quarterback they switched to a few weeks earlier, Pettine’s considering a switch of his own.