The Cleveland Browns are apparently not patient or daring enough to give second-year quarterback Johnny Manziel another chance to start after an impressive Week 2 outing.
The status of which quarterback would start for the Browns if Josh McCown got cleared of all concussion symptoms—which he now has—remained in question until Tuesday when head coach Mike Pettine made the decision to go with McCown.
Manziel now must take a seat as the backup, which is something that he’s not too thrilled about, per Steve Doerschuk of The Canton Repository:
Manziel: "I'm not going to sit here and say I love the decision, but I respect coach Pett."
— Steve Doerschuk (@sdoerschukREP) September 23, 2015
The 2013 Heisman trophy winner guided the Browns to a 28-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans 28-14 during which Manziel completed eight of 15 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Unfortunately, a couple of fumbles came along the way, too. However, he remained interception-free.
While Manziel appears to remain a supportive teammate, it’s clear he expects to become the face of the franchise at some point. According to Scott Petrak of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, Manziel said:
“I did my job bridging the gap.”
But, it wasn’t enough to overtake McCown, who didn’t apologize for the not-so-brilliant dive that resulted in a concussion:
#Browns McCown said he can't guarantee he won't dive headfirst again. "Hard for me to apologize for that side of me. It's big part of me."
— Scott Petrak ct (@ScottPetrak) September 23, 2015
McCown seemed confident that the team can pick up where he dropped off and build on their first win. We didn’t see much from McCown in Week 1 when he completed five passes for 49 yards before sustaining the concussion.
Although, based on McCown’s last season stats when he started for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fans should not hold their breath. McCown trudged to a terrible 1-10 record, completing just 56.3 percent of his passes along with posting a 11:14 touchdown to interception ratio.
There is no doubt if McCown performs as poorly as he did in 2014, we’ll definitely be seeing more of Johnny Football on the field this season.