On Friday, former Cleveland Browns safety Jim Leonhard said that he would consider playing in the NFL this year in the right situation. In that same interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio, he also discussed both of last year's first round picks, QB Johnny Manziel and CB Justin Gilbert, and how he thinks they will fare in 2015:
On Johnny Manziel:
"I don't think there's anything that quite jumped out as big of a red flag as having to go to rehab and things that happened, but let's be honest. His reputation coming out of college was that he liked to have a good time. That was no secret -- everybody knew that. Sometimes you can get caught up in that a little bit too much, and being a young kid, he obviously did. Seeing him day-to-day on the field and in the building, I had a great experience being a teammate of his. You saw the flashes week in and week out. He has the ability and obviously he wasn't as committed or focus as he needed to be last year. If he puts it together, you never know. He has ability; he was drafted in the first round for a reason. He can make it work, and I hope that he does. Like I said, I've got no issues with Johnny and I wish him the best."
On Justin Gilbert:
"The biggest thing with [Gilbert] is confidence in my mind. It's such a huge adjustment going from college to the NFL, in that system especially -- you're out there all by yourself. There's no secrets about that. It's just a confidence thing to be able to go out there day in and day out and week in and week out and handle that challenge. It's tough and everyone kind of handles it different. The biggest thing is that he's got a pretty amazing mentor in Joe Haden. From everything I've heard, everything that he did with him this offseason is awesome and just shows you the type of person that he is. I've got a lot of faith that he'll turn it around, and I know they are counting on him to do that."