After former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel recently said that the quarterback room was “not a home” during his rookie season because of veteran Brian Hoyer, the 38-year-old Las Vegas Raiders quarterback responded to Manziel’s claim of friction.
Manziel told Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe on the Club Shay Shay podcast earlier this week that Hoyer wasn’t exactly helpful during their time competing for the starting quarterback job with the Browns in 2014.
“My quarterback room was not a home for me because of Brian Hoyer,” Manziel told Sharpe. “Brian Hoyer had been waiting on an opportunity to go really provide for his family, get an opportunity and he saw how much of an upper hand he had on me, and he didn’t hold back when it came to that.”
Manziel’s evidence came from quarterback meetings.
“There were instances in the quarterback room early on where I would ask the same question a couple of times, and he’d be at the head of the table and go, ‘Pfft, again? We’re doing this again? Keep him out of it. Cut that off.’ And I don’t have a bad word to say about Brian Hoyer. That is just fact of what happened in that room.”
Hoyer generally agreed with Manziel’s take on the situation when he appeared on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football on Tuesday.
“Look, I’ll be honest. Johnny’s right, that was an opportunity for me to go out and be the starter for my hometown team, but I was kind of apathetic toward him I would say,” Hoyer said. “I didn’t go out of my way to be a jerk to him, but in the same sense, I was trying to win this job and go out and perform the best I could. I feel sorry that he feels that way about it.”
Johnny Manziel recently spoke on his rookie season with the Browns saying "The QB room was not a home for be because of Brian Hoyer."@bhoyer7 responds ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/74WZwrYQIg
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) February 27, 2024
Manziel admitted doesn’t have a bad thing to say about Hoyer, and the feeling apparently is mutual from Hoyer.
“I always looked at it like, I never had any animosity toward Johnny,” Hoyer said. “If anything, it was toward the owner and the GM who were always trying to push him ahead of me when clearly he wasn’t ready and I was gonna be the starter. It’s unfortunate that that left a bad taste in his mouth, but like I said, never had any animosity toward Johnny. I feel bad that he feels that way.”
After Manziel’s rookie season, Hoyer moved on to the Houston Texans, and he’s had several professional stops since in a career that still continues today. Manziel remained in the NFL through ’15 with the Browns and hasn’t played in the league since.
