News item: The Browns, who recently handed Johnny Manziel the starting quarterback job, yanked it back after images surfaced of Manziel partying on his bye weekend. Josh McCown will start instead Monday night against Baltimore.
Manziel, a first-round pick in 2014, was a party animal in his first season with the Browns. After his rookie year, he entered substance-abuse rehab and spent 73 days there. Earlier this year, he admitted to police that he had been drinking after he and his girlfriend were investigated for having an argument. Last Saturday in Texas, he was recorded on a phone having a good time, presumably with alcohol, during the bye weekend. On Tuesday, Browns coach Mike Pettine, saying he was disappointed in Manziel, named McCown the starter. “At this point, we’ve decided it’s best to go with Josh as the starter going forward,” said Pettine.
The fact that Pettine said “going forward” leads me to believe this is not a one-week assignment. Making Manziel the third-string quarterback is further proof this will not be temporary.
So what does this mean? It means Manziel is likely finished in Cleveland. The next coach—and I would say it’s at least probable if not very likely that Pettine will be a two-and-done coach for the ever-changing Browns—will begin the same process that every Cleveland coach since Bill Belichick has undergone since the infamous benching of Bernie Kosar: finding the elusive “quarterback of the future.
Let me say first I understand that Manziel is quite a knucklehead, who tells authority figures what they want to hear about being serious in his responsibility as a quarterback in the NFL. Then he goes out and does what he darn well pleases. The Browns, quite possibly, already have decided there is no chance Manziel is the quarterback of the Browns’ future.
If they have decided this, Cleveland should immediately cut Manziel.
If they have not decided this, Cleveland should play Manziel for the last six weeks of the season.
The only reason for the 2-8 Browns to show up and play out the end of another miserable season is to see if Manziel has any chance to be the quarterback going forward. There are many reasons to like McCown, who is a better quarterback than you think but only a short-term answer to the quarterback quandary at age 35. But he is going to be the same quarterback next September—presumably the Cleveland caretaker, if the franchise is smart—as he is now. That’s why the only smart thing is to see if Manziel has the chance to be more than that.
I think it’s a mistake to play the last six weeks of this season for some noble cause about showing to your team and to your immature quarterback that some principal about being a good citizen and non-partier on the bye weekend is going to trump the most important task the franchise has. That task is finding the quarterback for the next decade.
This just doesn’t help that. That’s why it’s a mistake
