“It took me ten minutes of watching you throw today to realize that you can be their guy. The ball comes out. You look the part. Now it’s time for you to write it, read it, dream it, and speak it. I’ll give you my phone number day and night—if you have a coach call to fly in to work you out, I’m there for you. I’ll give you ten trigger words for that offense that will have those coaches feeling right about you. Today, I just wanna talk about the overall of what lies ahead. In a second I want you to get up and teach me about your offense at A&M. You and I need to speak the same language when it comes to A&M as fast as we can. I’m gonna take notes. You’re gonna have to take what’s on tape and be able to explain it on the board and for teams to be able to project you in their offense.
“This Patriots offense [the one O’Connell played in, where new Texans coach Bill O’Brien was the offensive coordinator] is what the team with the number one pick will be running, and the good thing about the Jets’ offense [where he spent parts of three seasons] is, there are about a half dozen teams in the NFL that are now running it.”
O’Connell drew a diagram of the four components to the NFL Draft process: the all-star games, which Manziel, as an underclassman, wasn’t allowed to play in; the Combine; Pro Day; and the team workouts/visits.
“We’re gonna get you right on the field. We’re gonna get you right in here,” O’Connell said. “You’re gonna have to be ready, more so than anybody at that Combine, for those meetings. We’re gonna do a ton of X’s and O’s stuff.
“Ever heard the story about Russell Wilson? After meeting with the Seahawks at the Combine, the team just knew he was their guy. You have the ability to do that, to leave that type of impression, and it’s gonna be almost like a walk-off, where you drop the mic and leave. But obviously you do it in a way from the time you walk in to the time you walk out. You have to be everything and more than what they’re expecting.”
Before O’Connell invited Manziel up to the board, he asked the Heisman Trophy winner what he thought the perceived strengths of his game were.
“I felt like last year after working with Whit, teams thought, ‘Hey, we’re gonna man up, pressure, and have spies. We don’t feel like he’s a good enough passer to throw the ball downfield and beat us.’ I felt like, this year, I made teams get out of that. I know against Alabama, they came out in man-coverage, and by halfway through the first quarter, they were like, ‘Fuck that, we’re done.’ I felt like, whenever we did see man-coverage, with the exception of one game, against LSU, I felt like we did a good job of putting the ball where it needed to be.
“My interceptions were up a little bit. I had some tipped balls, so I know I gotta make better decisions, and seeing coverages is something I’d like to improve on. I see the defense well as things are going and I was good this year at manipulating defenses, whether it was using my hands to give them a stem early or seeing the soft corner to a one-high look. I felt like I got better at doing that. There are some weaknesses in being able to pick apart some zone defenses on a more consistent basis.”
Manziel was already in the exclusive Heisman fraternity, but O’Connell was hoping to help him into a different kind of fraternity. One with Peyton Manning, Brees, Brady, and a select few others who had the answers to the test before the ball ever reached their palms. “What you’re seeing nowadays is, everybody in the NFL is going to this system where the quarterback has a package of plays that he can get to depending on what the defense is in,” O’Connell told Manziel. “You’re not just gonna call ‘four-verts.’ The quarterback will check to it when he sees the appropriate look from the defense. Basically, nobody’s wasting plays anymore. And all of that is predicated on what you do watching tape and your preparation.”
Manziel had a similar story from his own days in College Station, jousting with Aggies defensive coordinator Mark Snyder, whose go-to defense was often “Tampa 2,” according to the QB. “If we had a run play, and they’re gonna crowd the box, I check,” Manziel said. “Then he checks. I didn’t even have to look over at him. I know what his go-to check is. The first thing we’re going to is all-curls to high-low with a hook over the middle replacing the MIK [linebacker] every time.”
O’CONNELL: Draw it up. Perfect segue. OK, every time you go up to that board, I want you to act as if Bill O’Brien is sitting where I’m sitting. Presence. Voice. Hold that thing [the marker] like you’re holding the keys to the franchise.
Manziel quickly ran through some A&M offensive staples. He explained a couple of details of “93,” which is “all-curls” run at 13 yards deep, pointing out the general idea behind the play: “He [pointing to a receiver] has this whole area from hash to hash to work. Obviously, MIK [middle linebacker] is gone. Replace.” With each bit of information Manziel offered, O’Connell peppered him with questions, asking for more specifics.
O’CONNELL: Where are the Z and X [receivers] alignments? Are they touching paint [the numbers on the field]?
MANZIEL: They’re on top of the numbers every time.
O’CONNELL: So top of the numbers, college, would be bottom of the numbers, pro. Perfect.
O’Connell wanted Manziel to get used to the altered geometry of the college game compared to the NFL due to the pro league’s narrower hash marks, which meant, for quarterbacks, landmarks and angles and typical dead spots against coverages were different. He was also big on getting Manziel familiar with some key buzzwords, such as PSLs (pre-snap looks) or Pure Progressions, so he’d be ready to talk scheme with NFL folks.
For every Manziel favorite route against a certain defense or team—such as on “95” against Duke, it was Mike Evans on a stairstep route—O’Connell translated it into Bill O’Brien’s language. “That’s gonna be called a Sting route backside. Or a Prick or post-read Prick.”
Manziel, like all the quarterbacks, was going to be grilled by coaches and GMs about what plays he liked on third-and-5, what he liked in the red zone, and on third-and-7-to-10 yards. O’Connell told him a common mistake young quarterbacks made was, they drew up the same play for fifteen different situations.
“Then Bill O’Brien asks [Texans offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels, ‘What’d he draw up for you on third-and-2-5? Four Verts. Oh, he drew the same for me on third-and-7-10 from the plus-15 [yard-line].’ ”
“I had 100 percent free rein to call anything,” Manziel shot back.
“You should write that on your forehead,” O’Connell said.
Texas A&M’s offense was an offshoot of the Air Raid scheme created by Hal Mumme and Mike Leach two decades earlier. “The Air Raid is an attitude, not a playbook,” Mumme liked to say. It was a perfect fit for Manziel.
“It’s all based on what matchup I like,” Manziel explained. “It’s all leverage. If they’re gonna play zone on third-and-3, and this ’backer is trying to take away this [pointing to a short route into the flat], we did a lot of stick-draw stuff.
“Most of the time I was quick enough with my feet and accurate enough on the outside shoulder at three yards to beat that guy. From there, I could have that play called and flash something [a hand signal] out there, a completely different call. I can give [the receiver] an out-route, so if it’s Cover-2, you try to give them a Hole shot. I had free rein to say, ‘I think that ’backer’s slow to get that.’ It was all hand signals, so if Mike [Evans] is one-on-one, I could give him a three-step slant or I could give him a comeback.”
O’Connell sounded impressed, telling Manziel, “You’re already ten times further along than I thought you’d be.”
Where Manziel was lacking was in his understanding of protections, which would be his biggest challenge in draft camp, especially if he ever sat down with a team like the Packers, whose head coach, Mike McCarthy, was an old O-line guy. “They’re gonna hammer you on protections,” O’Connell warned.
MANZIEL: I didn’t do any of it.
O’CONNELL: That’s good, because they’ll know and see that on tape, and by the time you’re meeting with them, you�
�ll know Scat, Jet [protections].
FIRST, O’CONNELL HAD TO teach Manziel how to “identify the MIK”—something in the A&M offense the Aggies’ center was responsible for. Many fans assume that the MIK, which typically in football parlance means the middle linebacker, would refer to the position played by Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, or Patrick Willis, but when it came to mapping out a protection scheme, it was not that simple. O’Connell admitted he used to do the same thing when he first got into the league, looking at an opponent’s depth chart and noting that Urlacher—number 54—was listed as the Bears’ middle linebacker. “So every time I’d come to the line of scrimmage, I’d say, ‘54 is the MIK,’ but that’s not gonna work for you when they start moving and disguising things,” O’Connell later said. “You have to have the spots in your head. You have to know if it’s an ‘odd’ or an ‘even’ defense, where your weakness in your protections may be, based on the ’backer alignment or the safety rotation.
“Some defenses, you’ll call out the same guy as the MIK on virtually every play. Other teams, with more exotic pressure packages, you might have to change the MIK point two or three times before you snap the ball. If you ever watch New England, and if they’re in their empty protection, Tom [Brady] will sometimes change protections several times before the snap.”
For O’Connell, a 6′5″, 225-pounder who ran a 4.61 40 at the Combine, grasping the mental aspect of the game wasn’t the reason he bounced to five NFL teams in five years and only got to throw six passes.
“Blitz me all day,” he said. “That’s the NFL. The problem with me and why I struggled was, I had a smile on my face—boom, boom [read the defense, find the open receiver]—and I’d just miss the throw, but it wasn’t a matter of me not knowing what was coming, and that was the most frustrating part.
“Once you get a label from a first impression, you can’t change that unless you get an opportunity. Once I learned everything in New England, it was, ‘You know where to go with the ball. You know how to protect everything, but can you make that throw?’ And when I went to New York, it was, ‘You know the offense. You can run it with your eyes closed, but can you make that throw?’ By the time I got to my fourth or fifth year, I knew what was happening, but I never got a rep to prove it. I spent so much time learning, I should’ve spent time with a private quarterback coach doing stuff to apply it instead of constantly trying to attack it from a mental perspective.”
WHITFIELD ENDED HIS FIRST week of draft camp a post pattern away from his one-bedroom home at Mission Beach in San Diego. Whitfield’s place was cluttered, floor to ceiling, with boxes of Nike shoes and gear as part of a new deal he had just signed with the brand powerhouse. On the walls were framed stories about him from Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine, and larger pictures of his two biggest heroes, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. There were also two framed posters of the New York City skyline. “That’s the culmination of the two biggest evaluation points in my life,” he said. “That’s where they award the Heisman Trophy and announce the first pick of the NFL Draft.”
Whitfield had two special guests there checking out his draft camp, Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and his advisor, Abe Elam, a former NFL defensive back. Bridgewater knew Whitfield from the Elite 11 but was still trying to figure out whom he wanted to train with. The Miami native had already been down to the IMG facility in Bradenton, Florida, to meet with Coach Chris Weinke, a former NFL QB, and earlier in the week had visited Jordan Palmer, who was also in the area and was training another projected first-round quarterback, Blake Bortles from UCF at Athletes’ Performance.
“I’m just trying to see what’s the best fit for me,” Bridgewater said as he observed Whitfield having Manziel and Thomas doing their drops into the 55-degree water while the waves swept in, rattling their bodies as they struggled to maintain their balance, keeping both hands around the football by their chests. After a five-minute break, Manziel wandered back to the sand to join Ryan Flaherty, who had a bunch of small cones laid out in a diamond formation. It was one of a series of grueling drills Flaherty set up for them that ranged from 40 yards of bounding through the sand to sprints. Whitfield held Thomas out of the conditioning work to save his legs, since he was headed to Mobile, Alabama, to compete in the Senior Bowl. In addition to Manziel, Mike Evans, and a former running back from Central Michigan who helped catching passes for the draft camp, Manziel’s marketing guy, Maverick Carter, the lanky childhood pal of LeBron James who had become the basketball star’s right-hand man, was decked out in his own workout clothes to try to keep up, trudging through the soft sand while Flaherty shouted instructions.
As Thomas prepared for his cross-country flight, O’Connell seemed more like a big brother than a coach to his protégé, triple-checking with him on certain details. Whitfield, who had worked with Thomas in the off-season since 2012, said he saw a “refreshed” Logan Thomas.
“Lots of guys, as they try to make the jump to the NFL, take a huge inhale, because they’re ready for the next step,” Whitfield said, noting Thomas’s awareness of the opportunity in front of him. “Just a great chance to reboot. It isn’t so much about team anymore. It’s about you.
“Once you get past Johnny, Teddy, and Bortles, who is 4-5-6 [among the QBs in the 2014 NFL Draft]? If Logan is really cleaned up, it can be him. You’re talking about bringing in a guy who is 6′6″, huge arm, really smart, good athlete. EJ [Manuel] went number one last year. Nobody had EJ higher than Matt Barkley at this point, but look what happened in the draft.”
Thomas knew it was going to be a long process but felt he was ready for it.
“I think this is gonna help me a great deal,” he said of his draft prep. “I think it’s knowing what I’m getting myself into. I’ve learned a lot from Coach Kevin and George, and now I get to prove myself. You play the game to compete against the very best, and I’m extremely excited for this.”
O’CONNELL AND WHITFIELD, WITH the help of Twitter, monitored the buzz from Mobile like nervous parents. As expected, Thomas left jaws on the floor when NFL personnel people eyeballed him. His hand size, measured at 10¾″, dwarfed that of the other five quarterbacks playing in the game. Only Miami’s Stephen Morris [10⅛″] was even bigger than 9½″.
The reactions from the week’s Senior Bowl practices, which matter more to NFL scouts than the actual game, were tougher to get a handle on. CBSSports.com NFL Draft analyst Dane Brugler said of Thomas: “We’ll often hear this draft season that Thomas has ‘what can’t be taught’ when referring to his physical attributes, but can touch and accuracy be taught? It can be tweaked and improved from a mechanical standpoint, but from his performances the past two days, along with three years of game film, it’s tough to see the upside with Thomas. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Virginia Tech quarterback ends up hearing his name called on the second day of the draft. But a team that drafts him that high is living on a hope and a prayer—similar to many of Thomas’s throws this week.”
NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks, a former pro scout, wrote that Thomas “delivered the ball with excellent velocity and zip in drills and looked like a confident passer from the pocket …[and] flashed timing and anticipation on a handful of throws in 7-on-7 that showcased his potential as a passer in a pro-style offense.”
Thomas’s performance in the game was underwhelming. Even though he completed four of five pass attempts, it was for just 17 yards. He also was sacked five times. Perhaps the moment O’Connell cringed the most was when he heard Thomas’s response to the question, “What if I asked you to play tight end?”
Thomas’s reply, according to The MMQB: “I would disregard y’all right off the top.”
WHITFIELD LOST OUT IN the competition to train Bridgewater (he opted to work with Weinke at the IMG facility), but the coach did get a visit from his mentor in late January when Cam Cameron came down to Carlsbad while on a West Coast recruiting trip. The crop of high school junior quarterbacks—the Class of 2015—was being touted as Souther
n California’s best group ever, and Cameron, the LSU offensive coordinator, had a few prospects he’d heard great things about. He was also curious to see what new drills Whitfield had come up with.
One of Whitfield’s newer drills, he called “the Creator,” where he had different defensive linemen come free, piercing the pocket, forcing the quarterback to evade pressure while keeping his eyes downfield. He’d come up with the drill a year earlier to help Oklahoma QB Landry Jones improve his pocket presence and “get used to creating operational space.” The premise: Very few times will all five offensive linemen hold their blocks. Often in team practices, coaches blow the whistle whenever a defender gets close to the quarterback.
“I’m trying to train a second set of instincts,” Whitfield said. “It’s like when you push racehorses into a starting gate. Sometimes, they don’t wanna go.” It was often like that with Manziel, as the drill showed. Whitfield watched Manziel give in to his natural instincts and step in between two linemen as if he was ready to bolt.
“No, no, no,” Whitfield said. “There is no escape route! Only adjustments. This is not an escape.”
“I could if I wanted to,” Manziel said with a mischievous grin as he scooted backward with the ball while still spying downfield.
“I know you could,” Whitfield said.
Cameron chuckled as much at the ingenuity of his protégé as at Manziel’s daring spirit. Whitfield viewed the fifty-three-year-old Cameron as a guest professor, often relying on him for feedback on the drills he cooked up.
“You can get lost in making up drills sometimes,” Whitfield later said. “You can come up with something that looks good but then realize it can have zero correlation to the game, and if that’s so, then you gotta ditch it.”
Cameron’s suggestion for the Creator drill: to incorporate another aspect of Whitfield drills—using numbered flash cards while standing at the middle linebacker spot to force the QBs to focus downfield and make “reads.” Another Cameron idea: have the quarterbacks wear helmets and shoulder pads for drills, which would be more similar to game situations.
The QB The Making of Modern Quarterbacks Page 26