If Manziel Can Go, Browns Must Continue to Start Johnny Football Moving Forward

The Cleveland Browns always seem to find themselves in a bad situation late in the season. Every year around Week 16 you can find a bunch of players on the field that you have never heard of before and a huge question at quarterback.

After starting out so promising, 2014 has ended the same as just about every season before it since 1999. And now that the Browns have pushed into the Johnny Manziel era, there is no turning back.

Admittedly, the Manziel era has not gotten off to the most ideal start. In his first game he completed just 10 of 18 passes for 80 yards and two interceptions. He looked lost, confused and two steps behind everything that was happening on the field. There was even one play where he tried to hand the ball off the wrong way.

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Manziel looking to hand off to Manti Te'os girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/kqSEMMxYwn

— LTView Sports (@LTViewSports) December 15, 2014"

On Sunday, Manziel made his second start with everyone hoping for improvement on his first performance. Check that, they were hoping for any type of performance at all.

For a brief glimpse he actually gave it to Browns fans. The offense was moving, and Manziel didn’t look like a deer trapped in the middle of a freeway. It was progress. Slight progress, but progress nonetheless.

That progress lasted for only about 13 minutes. Near the end of the first quarter he left the game with a hamstring injury and never returned. Brian Hoyer would close out the loss to Carolina. In Manziel’s absence, Hoyer did what Hoyer has always done. He kept the team afloat but could not overcome the deficiencies on offense or defense.

That narrative is not going to change. The Browns know what they have in Hoyer. They saw that story unfold for 16 starts and a few other relief appearances. With the team out of contention and focusing solely on the future, they cannot look back and must start Manziel next week at Baltimore.

If he is healthy enough to take the field then he needs to be the man leading the charge. Poor play aside; his time on the field is more valuable than anything else the team can accomplish this season. The fact of the matter is that the Browns used a first-round selection on Manziel, and now they must find out if it was justified.

Fans and media can speculate that he will never be successful in the NFL all they want, but someone inside the Browns headquarters in Berea thought he would. Now they need to explore that option. One more game will not give them a definitive answer either way, but it is another piece of evidence that can lead them to a conclusion in the future.

The reality of the situation is that Hoyer will probably not be in Cleveland next year anyway. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported just two weeks ago that his departure from the Browns was likely.

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Short of playoff trip this season that could force ramped up efforts to keep him, Brian Hoyer expected to depart Cleveland after this season

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 7, 2014"

If Hoyer is not long for the Browns organization and the team has not seemed to make many efforts at keeping him happy or around then why would he play? The argument that teams should win at all costs and that it’s the only thing that is important is short-sided and inaccurate. 

What is important now is building to win next year. The Browns are not back at square one. In fact, they have as talented a roster as anyone in the AFC North. The question now is whether they have the quarterback who can lead them to the top of the heap. Starting Johnny now helps them figure that out.

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Pettine won't commit to a QB for next week because he doesn't "know the severity" of Manziel injury.

— Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) December 21, 2014"

Barring any crazy, unforeseen circumstance, Manziel is going to start Week 1 next season. Shouldn’t the Browns be trying to get as many bad starts out of his system now rather than waiting for next year when it could potentially derail another season? How much worse would last week’s start have been if it happened in the 2015 opener? The answer is immeasurably worse. It would have shaken the organization to its core.

So the Browns can now let Manziel work out as many kinks as he can before getting the chance to lead form the get-go next year. It doesn’t matter what his ceiling is, he will be better, more comfortable and more prepared in a third start than in his first. That’s just the way experience works.

The Browns also currently hold the 14th and 16th picks in the 2015 draft. I know no one wants to think about the draft after competing for 15 weeks of this season, but it is a necessary evil. Starting Hoyer to try to win a game would only hurt their draft positioning.

If Manziel starts and wins the game then great. But if he starts and loses, that is fine too.

As crazy as that sounds, it’s true. If he starts and they lose, he gains experience and the Browns draft pick at least stays where it is. They should not intentionally try to lose, but it’s not the worst thing in the world if they do. Sometimes great things in the future come from unpleasant things in the present. 

Who knows, one of those draft picks could be the quarterback who actually takes the Browns to a Super Bowl. Or it could just be a piece that helps Manziel take them there. Without starting Manziel in the final game, it will be more difficult for the front office to decide which route is the correct path to take.