The Cleveland Browns are reportedly set to release Johnny Manziel before the end of the day Friday, per Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland.
Stop when youve heard before … #Browns expected to release Johnny Manziel by close of day.
— Tony Grossi (@TonyGrossi) March 11, 2016
At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised by anything the Browns do on this front. The organization was set to have this taken care of immediately after the new league year struck on Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, based on every single report coming out of the organization following Sashi Brown’s fiery statement on the troubled quarterback over a month ago.
A couple of different theories emerged Thursday when news broke that Cleveland would not be releasing Manziel on that day.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com postulated that the team was desperately trying to find a trade partner for the quarterback (not happening), while ESPN’s Adam Schefter wondered out loud if the Browns were trying to recoup some bonus money by waiting for the NFL to discipline Manziel.
Whatever the case, the Browns didn’t release him on Wednesday or Thursday. But apparently that’s as far as the franchise is willing to let this thing drag, as he’s expected to be let go Friday.
Manziel is currently going on a party tour to hot bars around the nation while he awaits the verdict of a Dallas grand jury on his domestic violence case against ex-girlfriend Coleen Crowley. It’s hard to imagine any NFL team would be willing to bring him on board these days, based on his lack of production on the field and trouble off it.