BEREA, Ohio - Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas has spent his entire nine year professional career in Cleveland, mostly on the receiving end of some miserable campaigns with the AFC North's perennial basement-dwellers.
He's seen a lot of quarterbacks behind him, too, and the one he played for most recently has caught his jaundiced eye.
Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, still in voluntary rehabilitation from his off field lifestyle, has been in Thomas' sights lately, and he doesn't like what he sees.
"I think he's going to have to prove to the team that football is important and being 'the man,' being the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, is important, it is his goal, his single goal in his life," Thomas told ESPNCleveland.com.
Manziel admitted himself into rehab on Jan. 28th, and has been cut off from all social media, and by extension the whole world, an isolation so prodigious that ESPN's Chris Mortensen said that the Browns had "90 percent moved on" from him in the meantime.
A conclusion that seemed all the more likely when the Browns signed quarterback Josh McCown to a three-year deal on Feb. 27th after trading away hometown product Brian Hoyer to Houston.
Thomas said any trust in Manziel from his teammates was a scarce commodity early on.
"You know, I think he lost probably a lot of trust among the guys on the team last year by the way he handled himself once he became the starter," Thomas said. "And I think he had a lot of time to reflect, I'm guessing, after the season was over by the comments he made in the media and by his actions, checking himself into rehab. I think those were positive steps."
Though the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Manziel was still enrolled in treatment, he was seen recently on a golf course in Shreveport, La., with his father. ESPN reports he is allowed to take occasional trips with his family under the program.
Thomas said he has little faith in guys saying they'll reform themselves and wants to see action.
“Yeah. Everyone wants to talk the good talk in the media, and that includes [embattled wide receiver] Josh Gordon, but it’s your actions that really are telling to your teammates about if you really mean what you say,” Thomas said.
"Obviously, there's some uncertainty with Johnny right now and that's why we brought in Josh [McCown]," Thomas said. "He's a guy that if he's asked to carry the flag this year, he's going to do a great job. There's a chance we draft somebody or there's a chance Johnny comes back and he's a new person and he's rededicated to football, and he turns into the great quarterback that we expected when we drafted him in the first round."
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