The saga of Johnny Manziel seems to be never-ending. The Browns, paragon of ineptitude, especially at the ever important quarterback position have flip flopped with Manziel time and time again over the past 2 seasons. Manziel will get yet another chance to start for the Browns in week 14, after the Browns chose to go with the limited Austin Davis ahead of him for the past 2 games following the latest injury to veteran Josh McCown.
The Browns have had trouble committing to Manziel, originally thought to be the future of the franchise. In Manziel's rookie season last year, he understandably took a back seat to veteran Brian Hoyer. But when Hoyer faltered down the stretch, posting a 4:11 touchdown to interception ratio from week 8 and on, albeit behind a banged up offensive line, the franchise still could not commit to giving Manziel an extended look. In the end they gave him 2 starts, but pulled him 8 attempts into the 2nd start, although he did experience some tightness in his hamstring.
The trend would continue this season, with the Browns signing Josh McCown to a big deal to replace Hoyer. McCown, a 36 year old journeyman quarterback coming off his first season in over a decade as a starter , and one in which he went 1-10 and led his team to the first overall pick in the draft, was chosen to start over Manziel. And while he has looked good at times, his spotty health led him to miss games throughout the season.
McCown has no future with the team, so the thought would be for Manziel to be given the opportunity to start some consecutive games and see what he has in the tank. But for some reason, he has not been given more than 2 consecutive starts all season long. Some speculate this is due to a video of him partying on his bye week, and then lying to the team about it, but this is unconfirmed.
With McCown done for the season, and this team nowhere near contending, the time is now for the Browns to evaluate what they have in order to decide whether to move on from Manziel and take a new franchise quarterback in the coming draft. One thing is for certain, this is long overdue. Hopefully the mishandling of Manziel by the Browns franchise is over for good.