Johnny Fuckin Football

[Everlong]

HOW ARE THERE NO TOPICS ON JOHNNY FOOTBALL

The man, the myth, the legend sparked the Browns to a big time win this week and looked like he was having a lot of fun doing it.

Let the Money Manziel era begin

[The Legend]

LOL, I'm a Browns fan and even I know we have to pump the brakes a little bit on that noise. I mean he was 8/15 for like 175 yards. Fortunately, two of his completions were +50 yard bombs to Travis Benjamin for touchdowns.

Benjamin is the real story, one TD last week, three TD against the Titans, He has four of the Browns 5 TD's.

Manziel has also fumbled 4 times in 7 quarters of play this season, just luckily Browns' o-linemen fell on both fumbles this week.

Oh, also, fortunate for Manziel that the Browns defense finally showed up and had 7 sacks and 3 fumbles recovered.

As for the "Johnny Manziel Era" It would seem that if he's cleared from concussion protocol, the Browns are leaning towards putting McCown back in as starter because, "he gives us the best chance to win right now".

[Everlong]

the Browns are leaning towards putting McCown back in as starter because, "he gives us the best chance to win right now".

I just don't understand this thinking if this is true. McCown is old. We know what he's got.

Keep playing Manziel and figure out if he has what it takes. He won a game for Cleveland, which is more than McCown can say.

[The Legend]

the Browns are leaning towards putting McCown back in as starter because, "he gives us the best chance to win right now".

I just don't understand this thinking if this is true. McCown is old. We know what he's got.

Keep playing Manziel and figure out if he has what it takes. He won a game for Cleveland, which is more than McCown can say.

Here's the thinking of the organization. I'm not sure I agree with all of it, but I can at least see their logic. They don't blame what happened in Tampa last year on McCown. They look at the situation and say, he had the worst o-line in the history of the NFL blocking for him and his offensive coordinator took a leave of absence right at the start of the season making McCown almost like the quasi-offensive coordinator on top of being the quarterback.

Next, here's what they see in McCown, a quiet, confident leader who will put team before himself mentoring other players (Manziel) to get them ready to take his spot when the time is right and do what's best for the team, even at the detriment of himself. That's something polar opposite from what they had last year in the confrontational, almost combative nature of Manziel/Hoyer relationship, where Hoyer was fighting for his life to become a starting QB and get a big pay day. McCown isn't worried about that because he knows his biggest pay day opportunities are behind him.

Now looking at the team and how McCown fits into it they say this: It's been 8 years since we've had a winning season, 13 years since we've been to the playoffs and 20 years since we've won a playoff game. The GM and coach are in the second year of their reign for an organization that hasn't given a coach a third year since Romeo Crennel was fired in 08 in the middle of his fourth year and hasn't given a GM a third year since Tom Heckert was fired after three years in 2012. Heckert and Phil Savage are the only GM's to make it three full seasons since 1999.

In other words, the people in charge in Cleveland have very little reason to feel comfortable and secure in their jobs if they don't get results (rumor has it Jimmy Haslam was nearly mad enough to fire both after the embarrassing loss to the Jets).

But beyond that, This is a team that was 7-4 last season and leading the division at Thanksgiving last year. They believe that they have built a team with one of the best lines in football, a good stable of running backs and one of the best defensive units as well. They think that if they protect McCown and give him a solid run-based offense with play action passing (like he ran in Chicago) he can play above average football and with the running game and defense that could be good enough to win this year, while Manziel learns from the bench and eventually Manziel could step in more like Aaron Rodgers did three years into his pro career rather than learning on the job now.

And to their credit, McCown has actually played in a fashion that backs up those thoughts. In the preseason, yes I know preseason, McCown was 29/38, 207 yards, 3 TD's, 2 Ints. It was funny to hear it, but he even had some in the Browns media division (they run their own talk radio show) calling him Josh Gannon, referencing how Rich Gannon found the perfect system after a mostly down career to take the Raiders to the Super Bowl. Then in the season opener he actually backed it up even further, going 5/8 for 50 yards in the game opening drive as he methodically led the team down the field on a 17 play, 90 yard drive before fumbling on the one-yard line just before being able to dive into the end zone.

So to answer the original question, their thinking is they had a plan for this season, not just to go through the motions in a rebuilding year that isn't going anywhere, but to actually contend for the playoffs with Josh McCown as their starting quarterback. I don't know if that plan can work and would probably bet against it if I had to put money on it, but to this point they have seen no hard evidence that it can't work.

Add in the fact that Manziel has three turnovers in seven quarters and is a whisper away from it being six turnovers in seven quarters and Mike Pettine is a defensive coach that doesn't want to see his defense on a short field and there's definitely logic to why would approach it that way.

[Everlong]

^Well when you put it like that, it's a much more defensible decision

[The Legend]

It's worth noting, Mike Pettine announced today what I figured he would announce all along. Josh McCown is back to starting for the Cleveland Browns.