Merrill Hoge: Johnny Manziel 'has no business' playing in the NFL

ESPN analyst Merrill Hoge went on Pittsburgh radio station 102.5 WDVE on Wednesday morning and went off on how terrible he thinks Johnny Manziel will be as an NFL quarterback.

Hoge said that the Pittsburgh Steelers — Cleveland's Week 1 opponent — defense should "want No. 2 to walk out on that field" and that the former Aggie "has no business being on the field right now."

Merrill is no stranger to attacking quarterbacks that come out of college with a lot of hype. He was one of the most vocal detractors of Tim Tebow in his time in the NFL.

As the interview went on, Hoge continued to try and bury Manziel, while finding a way to take a shot at Tebow as well.

"He really had no business being drafted in the first round...When I was doing the draft and I was going through and studying him. I actually got done and it's the first time, aside from when Tim Tebow came out, that I was like, gah, there's nothing, nothing he does that transitions to the National Football League."

Hoge continued on his rant saying that Manziel should have been at most a seventh round pick.

"If you really want to be fair and he wants to a shot to play in the NFL, take a flier on him in the seventh round. Use him in developmental, build him up to see if he can even play...I'll tell you this, when you watch him in preseason, he looks out of place. He has no business being on the field. None whatsoever."

He concluded his interview with a prediction — and another shot at Mr. Tebow.

"This will be the saddest, quickest ending we've seen in quite some time. It'll be like a Tim Tebow."