Brian Hoyer's Time Is Not Up Yet in Cleveland, Still Too Soon for Johnny Manziel

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer's dismal performance in his team's 24-6 loss at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars have some thinking perhaps it's time to finally make the switch to rookie Johnny Manziel. A cursory search of the Twitter machine makes that quite clear.

However, Hoyer shouldn't ride the bench this week or any time soon. Though Hoyer was instrumental in the Browns' loss to the then-winless Jaguars, it wasn't all his fault. And the good things that Hoyer has done for the Browns this season outweigh both his down Week 7 as well as the benefits, if any, of Manziel taking over.

There are some facts about Hoyer to consider, of course. There is his steadily declining completion percentage since its high of 76 percent in Week 3. There is the fact that with Alex Mack done for the year and John Greco in at center now, that Hoyer will be susceptible to more pressure and thus more prone to mistakes.

There's also the conundrum about Hoyer's deep-passing accuracy, which is best in the league according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required) yet his overall accuracy percentage is the worst.

All of this seems to point to there being upside to making the switch to Manziel. Even the problems with the offensive line make it seem that Manziel and his mobility would help mitigate them. But none of this is the case. 

It's not just that Hoyer has the experience edge, though that plays a major part. Manziel has taken only five snaps this season and hasn't been on the field since Week 3. It's just that the Browns have a solution to what ails Hoyer and the offense, and it's what brought them three wins and kept things close in two of their three losses.

Game	Outcome	Atts.	Comp.	Comp.%	Yds.	TD	INT	YPA
@ PIT	L, 30-27	30	18	60.00%	222	1	0	7.40
vs. NO	W, 26-24	40	24	60.00%	204	1	0	5.10
vs. BAL	L, 23-21	25	19	76.00%	290	1	0	11.60
@ TEN	W, 29-28	37	21	56.76%	291	3	1	7.86
vs. PIT	W, 31-10	17	8	47.06%	217	1	0	12.76
@ JAX	l, 24-6	41	16	39.02%	215	0	1	5.24

It's the play-action pass. 

The Browns offense runs the ball the second-most often in the league, averaging 32.2 rushing attempts per game. Even last week, when nothing was working on offense, the Browns still rushed a collective 30 times, with Ben Tate, Isaiah Crowell and Terrance West getting 28 of those carries.

Yes, that was a low number in proportion to Hoyer's 41 pass attempts, but the commitment to the run shows that the Browns can use play-action to mask Hoyer's weaknesses, keep pressure away from him while the line is depleted and keep their run game always a threat.

The numbers even show that the play-action is something Hoyer is quite good at. Only two quarterbacks throw a higher percentage of play-action passes this year, with Hoyer using it on 31.7 percent of his pass attempts. 

PA %	Atts.	Comp.	Comp.%	Yds.	TD	INT	YPA
Non PA %	Atts.	Comp.	Comp.%	Yds.	TD	INT	YPA
31.7%	62	35	56.5%	620	5	0	10.0
68.3%	129	72	55.8%	828	2	2	6.4

Via Pro Football Focus (subscription required), his completion percentage on play-action is slightly higher than non-play-action, at 56.5 percent compared to 55.8 percent. His play-action yards-per-attempt is significantly higher at 10.0 yards compared to 6.4. And Hoyer has thrown five touchdowns via the play-action and no interceptions; he's thrown two touchdowns and two interceptions on non-play-action passes.

That the Browns remained committed to running the ball against Jacksonville shows that they know where their strengths lie and how to help get the most out of Hoyer. And for all of Hoyer's missteps against Jacksonville—included, but not limited to, him completing only 16 of those 41 pass attempts and turning the ball over twice—it was the entire offense that failed the Browns, not just him.

Head coach Mike Pettine said as much at his Wednesday press conference (via Rick Fargo of WOIO): 

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"I don't want to overreact. I think we all know that he didn't have a good day statistically, but we're not going to overreact to it because when you looked at the film it's what I'm talking about. When you don't play well around a quarterback it's hard for him to have an outstanding performance. It's something that you learn from it. You make sure you look at the why, look to correct it, but you don't overreact to it."

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Subbing in Manziel for Hoyer would be an overreaction. There are other ways to boost Hoyer's performance and thus the whole offense without making a change at quarterback, one that would alter the entire offensive philosophy at a crucial time in the season. 

Run the ball and again ask Hoyer to run a hefty dose of play-action passes set up by the run game and the offense will be humming along as well as it had before the loss to Jacksonville. One bad game should not send the Browns scrambling to make drastic changes; there is no need to panic, just a need to improve. 

For now, even for all his weaknesses, benching Hoyer won't make things better for the Browns offense. Manziel's time will—and should—have to wait.