Haden to Manziel: Put camera away

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Saturday, June 21, 2014

Johnny Manziel settled down to business as a quarterback in the NFL this week, agreeing to terms on a rookie contract while even drawing the praise of Aaron Rodgers for how the Heisman winner has handled himself.

But at least one Cleveland Browns teammate thinks Manziel should continue to heed caution in his approach to life off the field.

Cornerback Joe Haden, speaking Friday during a radio interview on "The Really Big Show" on ESPN Cleveland, said he thinks "Johnny needs to check his friends a little bit."

"Everybody is going to go out and have a good time," the four-year veteran said. "You gotta make sure when you're with your people, it just doesn't get out. He's going to have a good time, but a lot of things need to be taken away.

"You need to have a phone valet -- tell your friends to put your phones away. We're going to go out but don't record."

Rodgers said Monday that he thinks Manziel has kept the right attitude and has had chances to do "some pretty cool things" but at the same time "can't control the people taking pictures of him ... the people wanting to be around him."

However, Haden said that's where "Johnny Football" should place more focus.

"He's grown. When I've seen him in the locker room, he's in there on time, he's in there studying," Haden said in the ESPN Cleveland radio interview. "He's getting better and better, every OTA and every minicamp. It's just the off the field stuff, a lot of it can be prevented."

As recently as last Saturday, Manziel tweeted a party photo with celebrity friends, including rapper Drake and jeweler-to-the-stars Johnny Dang.

#HAW @tvjohnny @Drake pic.twitter.com/M28ySC9IES

- Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) June 15, 2014"But he's young," Haden added. "Nothing that he does out there is affecting his improvement on the football field. For him, I would like to get people off of his back. You Johnny, you young, you just got in the league. You're doing everything you need to do on the field. Maybe just try to ease back a little bit."

Cleveland opens training camp in late July, and Manziel will be competing with Brian Hoyer for the starting quarterback job, although new coach Mike Pettine has said Hoyer will be No. 1 on the depth chart when camp opens.

The Browns said Tuesday that they had agreed with Manziel on a rookie contract. Terms were not released, but the NFL rookie wage scale projected Manziel's deal to be worth about $8.25 million for four years. Like all first-round picks, his contract includes a fifth-year team option.

Information from ESPN.com's Pat McManamon was used in this report.

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