Former Cleveland Browns first-round pick, Johnny Manziel, has been a hot topic in the football world in recent days. A documentary about him, Johnny Football, was released on Netflix, which has brought to light some wild details about his time in the limelight.

Manziel put together some incredible seasons with Texas A&M, including being the Heisman Trophy recipient for the 2012 season. His success with the Aggies led to the Browns selecting him at No. 22 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft.

Any assumptions that people had about his career with the Browns were likely shared during the documentary. Despite the assumptions, the lack of motivation and interest in putting in the work to succeed in the NFL was still a shocking thing to hear about.

It was one of the things that Manziel’s teammate with the Browns, 2023 Hall of Fame inductee, left tackle Joe Thomas, spoke about during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show. It didn’t take long for Thomas to realize that things weren’t going to pan out for Manziel and the Browns.

“Well, shortly after we drafted him he, like, vanished in the spring,” said Thomas. “We were in the middle of OTAs and the coaches couldn’t find him. He had come to Cleveland, he was there for, like, a day and he was at practice and then he just disappeared. I think he was just on a bender somewhere in Cleveland partying and he couldn’t find his way back to the facility. So, it was at that moment I thought, ‘We may have some problems with this young rookie here.’ If he can’t even find his way during OTAs when he’s a rookie and should be trying to put his best foot forward [that’s a problem].”

Thomas, who was already an established star in the NFL when the Browns selected Manziel, discussed the frustrations that he had with the situation. Manziel was a rookie who should have been doing everything in his power to make a good impression on his teammates and people within the organization.

Instead, he was out partying and doing everything other than putting in work on the football field. As someone entering his eighth season in the league, it frustrated Thomas to see Manziel putting in such a small amount of effort.

“It’s not a lot of fun, especially when you’re an old guy and you’re still showing up for mini-camps and OTAs and all the optional stuff in the off-season,” said Thomas. “And here’s this first-rounder who’s supposed to be doing everything he possibly can to earn the trust and respect of his teammates and he’s missing and we can’t find him. So, that was really frustrating.”

Thomas was willing to give Manziel the benefit of the doubt early on. No matter how frustrated he may have felt, based on Manziel’s performance at Texas A&M, he was someone that could have helped the Browns win some games.

However, on top of the off-field issues, the deck was stacked against Manziel. As Thomas noted, he didn’t possess any of the physical attributes normally needed to succeed at the next level.

“He was short, he wasn’t incredibly fast or quick. It’s not like he was a short quarterback who ran a 4.4 [40-yard dash] and was just lightning quick where you thought he could make up for it,” explained Thomas. “He had a ton of physical limitations that the NFL game was going to expose.”

Players have succeeded in the NFL while lacking ideal size and strength, but they usually put in that extra work to compensate for whatever they are missing. That initiative was lacking in Manziel, which Thomas noticed early on as well.

“Man, how is this guy ever going to be able to figure it out, and on top of that, he doesn’t really seem all that committed to being a quarterback.”

All of Thomas’ worries turned out to be valid. Manziel played only two seasons with the Browns, making 14 appearances and eight starts. Cleveland went 2-6 in those games as Manziel’s star faded out as quickly as it emerged.