Johnny Manziel is reportedly being prepared to make the start in Week 9 for the Cleveland Browns against the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football.
As Rand Getlin of NFL Network points out, this is a “brutal task,” given the short week and that it’s a road game.
I'm told the #Browns are preparing QB Johnny Manziel to start, on the road, against the undefeated #Bengals, on a short week. Brutal task.
— Rand Getlin (@RandGetlin) November 3, 2015
Manziel is being prepared to start because starter Josh McCown is dealing with some extremely sore ribs from Sunday’s loss at home to the Arizona Cardinals. McCown has generally been beaten to a pulp recently, so if it wasn’t his ribs it could just as easily be his shoulder, which was sore heading into Week 8 after he was tackled by the wall at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis the week before.
Manziel has shown some positives during limited action thus far in 2015. He has three touchdowns and one interception in approximately a game-and-a-half of action and has shown a knack for connecting deep down the field with receiver Travis Benjamin.
In the grand scheme of things, it really matters not who starts at quarterback for the Browns. At 2-6 midway through the season, which is 5.5 games behind the streaking Bengals, a playoff berth is already out of the question.
With that in mind, it’s worth wondering why the Browns don’t just let Manziel play the rest of the way. Sure, McCown has been better than most thought he would be, but he still hasn’t managed to win more than a single game as a starter. Without anything to lose in the experiment, at least Cleveland could find out what it has in Johnny Football as a potential long-term answer at quarterback.