This is another lost season for the Cleveland Browns, but they might get something out of it by sticking with Johnny Manziel as their starting quarterback. Josh McCown isn’t here for more than a season or two, not to mention not someone for Manziel to learn too much from. If you’re going to be losing, why not do it while possibly grooming your next quarterback.
The endless discussion of letting a quarterback sit for a year, two or maybe more while letting a better, more experienced player provide some sort of mentoring, even if just by showing the youngster what to do on the field through example, is never going to be settled. If someone is good, he’s good. Maybe being thrown into the wrong situation hurts a development process but in the end, if Manziel is the right guy for the Browns, it’s going to show.
His performance in the 31-10 loss to the Bengals wasn’t exactly reassuring, but we’ve seen worse from him. In his second start to the season, Manziel faced more pressure than anyone has seen all season in the league, with the Bengals putting him under duress on 24 of his 40 dropbacks. He completed just 7-0f-19 in those situations and was terrible when trying to move the ball downfield for more than 6 yards (just 5-of-19), but his offensive line didn’t exactly make things easy on him.
The bottom line is this: The Browns might still be wary of giving Manziel the keys to the car (a banged up one), but the other choices they have, which is going to McCown again while knowing that he’s going to retire pretty soon anyway and he’s not good enough to be a starter on a team hoping to win more than four-five games a season, aren’t better. Manziel might turn out to be a decent option, at least for now, until the Browns draft another quarterback and begin another process of trying to get the franchise out of the mud they’ve been stuck in for what seems like an eternity.