Quarterback E.J. Manuel met with the Browns in Cleveland last week and then had another private workout with the team on Saturday at Florida State and Manuel says that Browns coach Rob Chudzinski wasn’t shy about comparing Manuel with the quarterback that Chudzinski coached in Carolina for the last two years.
Manuel said he was watching tape with Chudzinski on Saturday when the Browns coach told him that he “reminds me of somebody I used to coach.” Chudzinski has worked with several quarterbacks over the course of his coaching career, but it wasn’t Derek Anderson that he had in mind.
“He already brought up Cam when I was up in Cleveland on Monday,” Manuel told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I think coach Chudzinski sees a lot of Cam Newton in me, so that’s kind of in my favor as far as being a guy that’s very similar to Cam’s playing style.”
Manuel was flattered by the comparisons to Newton and has the size/running ability combo that the Panthers quarterback has, but Manuel said he spends more time trying to model his game after Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. That’s gotten him meetings with most of the quarterback-needy teams in this year’s draft and Manuel said he anticipates going early in the draft to a team that he plans to start for in 2013.
If it is the Browns, he’ll need to beat out Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell. It will take more than comparisons to current NFL starters to make that happen, but it’s not the worst place to start the process.