Manziel bidding to be Browns’ starter
Next game could decide competition with Hoyer
Johnny Manziel’s too-close-to-call battle with incumbent Brian Hoyer to open the season as the Cleveland Browns quarterback Sept. 7 against the Pittsburgh Steelers likely will come down to how both perform in next Monday’s meeting with the Washington Redskins.
If the duel is not a dead heat, it’s close, with Manziel having a real chance to pass Hoyer if he continues to show the strides in the pocket he has in the last week and in Saturday’s highly anticipated Browns preseason debut.
Browns coach Mike Pettine said Sunday that both quarterbacks were solid in Cleveland’s 13-12 loss to the Detroit Lions. While Pettine and his coaching staff have yet to decide who will start Aug. 18 against the Redskins, Pettine said Manziel had shown dramatic improvement since June. The coach also noted Hoyer’s performance hasn’t slipped in the sixthyear pro’s return from season-ending knee surgery in October.
Hoyer and Manziel each will get first-team repetitions in practice this week, as Pettine ideally wants to name his starter before Cleveland’s third preseason game Aug. 23 vs. the
“We put Brian out there with the 1’s because he was ahead with the playbook. ... But Johnny has made improvement, a lot of improvement.”
Browns coach Mike Pettine, on Johnny Manziel
St. Louis Rams.
“It’s not 1,000% etched in stone, but I would like it (decided) before then,” Pettine said during a conference call Sunday. “The reviews of him (Manziel) in the pocket have been positive, that he has a good sense of the pocket; that he feels the rush without looking at it. A lot of quarterbacks have an issue with that. They’re more looking at the rush than feeling it. He’s definitely a work in progress with that. But he’s shown solid improvement.”
Pettine denied one report citing a team source that Manziel had leapfrogged Hoyer. “It’s untrue,” Pettine said. “The people most involved in the decision is myself, (quarterbacks coach) Dowell Loggains and (offensive coordinator) Kyle Shanahan. It’s something I’m not going to pay a lot of attention to, because I don’t like being in the business of team sources.”
Still, Manziel has come on strong to close the gap. And even if Manziel isn’t given the nod to start with the first team against the Redskins after working exclusively with the second string against the Lions, both quarterbacks could see first-team reps against Washington to settle the competition in fair fashion.
“We put Brian out there with the 1’s because he was ahead with the playbook,” Pettine said. “And he’s done nothing to have that taken away from him. But Johnny has made improvement, a lot of improvement.”
To win the job, Manziel, who was 7-for-11 passing for 63 yards against the Lions, must continue showing he can play consistently well from the pocket without taking off at the first hint of passrush pressure.
The No. 22 overall pick in May’s draft showed flashes of his Johnny Football magic by running Shanahan’s pistol formation effectively. And the Texas A&M legend brings that added playmaking dimension Hoyer doesn’t with his ability to escape trouble and make plays with his legs. Manziel led the Browns with 27 rushing yards on six carries, including a 16-yard scramble for a first down he ended with a baseball slide after getting belted on an earlier run.
Hoyer, who went 2-0 last season before suffering a seasonending knee injury Oct. 3, was 6for-14 for 92 yards passing, missing a couple of third-down throws high.