Brian Hoyer Gave Browns No Choice but to Start Johnny Manziel

For at least two months of this NFL season, Brian Hoyer was the feel-good story of the year. He won the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback job as the hometown kid, the lifelong fan earning his dream job.

Against all odds—and with a receiving corps that seemed anemic at best—he led his team to six wins and three losses. The Browns were atop the AFC North. In a year where an 8-8 finish would have been a significant improvement, it looked like something even better than that was in reach: the playoffs.

But then something happened. Something disastrous. The Browns lost three of their last four games, and though Hoyer wasn't the only one to blame, he does (and should) shoulder most of it. 

In those four games and three losses, Hoyer has completed just 49.7 percent of his passes. He has thrown eight interceptions to just one touchdown. He did engineer a game-winning field-goal drive against the Atlanta Falcons, but aside from that he's been an albatross hanging around the Browns' neck.

Week	Outcome	Atts.	Comp.	Comp.%	Yds.	TD	INT
11	vs. HOU, L, 23-7	50	20	40.00%	330	1	1
12	@ ATL, W, 26-24	40	23	57.50%	322	0	3
13	@ BUF, L, 26-10	30	18	60.00%	192	0	2
14	vs. IND, L, 25-24	31	14	45.16%	140	0	2
Total	1-3	151	75	49.67%	984	1	8

The heroics and resilience he showed off in the first half of the season has been whittled away to nothing in the past month.

The final straw came in the Browns' one-point loss to the Indianapolis Colts. It was a masterful performance by Cleveland's defense. The Browns sacked Colts quarterback Andrew Luck three times, had 13 quarterback hits, picked off Luck twice, forced him into a fumble which was returned for a touchdown and limited him to just 5.5 yards per pass attempt.

It was all for naught, however, with Hoyer throwing a pair of interceptions of his own and completing only 45.16 percent of his passes. What would have been a significant win was turned into a loss when the offense completely collapsed.

It was a terrible performance for Hoyer, coming just one week after being benched for Johnny Manziel in the fourth quarter of an eventual 26-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Hoyer was on the shortest of leashes, and instead of acknowledging this position and stepping up, he utterly wilted.

That's why it comes as no surprise that Manziel will be starting in place of Hoyer this week against the Cincinnati Bengals and likely for the remainder of the season. 

While it is an unorthodox move for a 7-6 team still technically in the playoff hunt to switch quarterbacks with three games remaining, it was the necessary one. There has been no bounce-back for Hoyer, not even with his Week 13 benching as motivation. 

And it doesn't matter what a team's record is or who the quarterback is—one touchdown to eight interceptions and three losses in four games is going to get a quarterback benched.

And that record? If Hoyer had played better, it's possible the Browns could be at 10 wins already. As much as he's helped the Browns, he's also cost them just as much.

Hoyer wasn't having a perfect year prior to the past month. He had accuracy issues that dogged him even when he was at one time the league's best deep-passing quarterback. Now, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he ranks eighth in deep passing; he also ranks dead last in accuracy, which he has (or has been close to) for much of the year.

The Browns, collectively, have had their struggles this year. The defense has been plagued with injuries. Center Alex Mack was lost for the season with a knee injury, and as a byproduct the run game dropped off significantly. Receiver Josh Gordon came back after a 10-game suspension and is still learning the new offense. 

However, Hoyer was supposed to be the one stable thing the Browns could rely on every week—if not to win games with his arm, then to keep the football protected and prevent losses. His last four games have been the opposite of that. It's no wonder, then, that Manziel will be the starter. 

At this point, the Browns know what they have in Hoyer, and unfortunately it's not pretty. Manziel, however, is a first-round draft pick and a mostly unknown quantity in a live-game situation—his time against the Bills notwithstanding.

Head coach Mike Pettine expressed this sentiment on Wednesday (via Andrew Gribble of the Browns' official site):

"

We made the decision because it's what's best for the Cleveland Browns this week, but at the same time, a positive result of it is we do get a chance to see [Manziel]. You can't hide from the facts. He was a first-round draft pick. We all know the circumstances with Brian. It gives us a chance, one, to win a football game this week—that's our focus—but at the same time, to get a peek at potentially whether it's a long-term solution.

"

There was always going to be a point where the Browns would have to strongly consider the decision to finally name Manziel their quarterback of the future. It was merely a matter of whether that would come in his rookie season or at a later time.

Manziel's fate was very much in Hoyer's hands as much as his own. Hoyer falters, and Manziel is one step closer to starting. Hoyer succeeds, and Manziel could be a backup for a second season. But Hoyer has not just faltered over the past month—he's failed. 

The Browns are not content to sit idly by and watch Hoyer struggle week after week, their chances to be .500 or better dwindling away. They want not only to be competitive in their final three games but to be winners.

The postseason is not yet out of reach, even with 12 of 16 AFC teams boasting seven or more wins. Can Manziel get them where they believe Hoyer cannot? That has yet to be seen. But they do know that to get closer to where they want to be, they had to make this quarterback change.

Hoyer had one last opportunity to plead his case, and he failed. It's not what Manziel did that earned him the job, but what Hoyer did not.