Browns Making Huge Mistake, Delaying Inevitable by Starting McCown over Manziel

Mike Pettine has been infected.

He has Cleveland Browns Syndrome and there's no known cure. There's no other way to explain why Pettine—the organization's second-year head coach—continues to defy logic and hurt his own franchise by propping up Josh McCown as the starting quarterback and failing to recognize that Johnny Manziel should be viewed as the only real option under center. 

On Wednesday, Pettine confirmed—apparently with a straight face—that McCown has been cleared to return from a concussion and will indeed start in place of Manziel Sunday against the Oakland Raiders, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

By doing so, he's hurting his team. The laughingstock Browns haven't been to the playoffs since 2002, haven't won a postseason game since 1994 and have never been to a Super Bowl, and they won't get any closer by taking the lame, unimaginative and cowardly route they're embarking on by sticking with McCown rather than gambling on Manziel. 

Let's be clear: McCown has no business as a starting quarterback in this league. If he's on your roster, it should be as a backup who can serve as a leader in the locker room. 

He's the ninth-oldest position player in the league and is coming off a season in which he was the the second-lowest-rated qualified passer in football, ahead of only Jacksonville Jaguars rookie Blake Bortles. As a 35-year-old with the 2014 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he completed only 56.3 percent of his passes and had the league's worst interception rate by a significant margin. 

Quarterback	Picks	Rate
Josh McCown	14	4.3
Blake Bortles	17	3.6
Mark Sanchez	11	3.6
Andy Dalton	17	3.5
Geno Smith	13	3.5

"We're tasked with winning football games," said Pettine, per Kabot, "and the decisions we make are what gives us the best opportunity to win this Sunday."

But how can he look at the evidence in place and possibly believe that McCown gives this franchise a better chance to win right now? 

McCown is living off of one hot stretch in which he threw 13 touchdown passes and only one pick during a stint in relief of Jay Cutler for a talented Chicago Bears team in 2013. But if you view his 13-year career broadly, it becomes obvious that was an anomaly, and a small sample size in comparison to what he's done (or failed to do) elsewhere. 

McCown has experienced practically no success anywhere else, and he's now been employed by more than a quarter of the league's 32 teams. Prior to his one-year stint with Tampa Bay, he hadn't been a Week 1 starter since he was a member of the Oakland Raiders in 2007. That year, he posted an abysmal passer rating of 69.4, ranking 33rd among the 35 quarterbacks who played in at least nine games. 

There's a reason he was cast aside by Tampa, Chicago and Oakland, as well as San Francisco, Carolina, Miami, Detroit and Arizona. 

We know what Josh McCown is. We've seen his ceiling. Does anybody believe he's any different than Brian Hoyer? Or Brandon Weeden? Colt McCoy? Derek Anderson? Charlie Frye? Of course he's not, because he's just another aging scrub with a decent enough arm to hang around in a league suffering from a quarterback talent drought. 

We do not know what Johnny Manziel is, and I understand that is scary. But we do know that McCown, who has never thrown a pass for a playoff team or witnessed a single playoff victory during his entire career, is not going to suddenly lead this franchise deep into the playoffs. 

So can you even call starting Manziel a gamble? Sounds more like the only sensible option, especially considering the fact he was less of a liability than his older teammate in the preseason (McCown threw two interceptions, while Manziel didn't turn the ball over) and he has a 99.7 passer rating in place of the old man thus far in the regular season. 

Manziel hasn't been perfect, but he's given the team a jolt that history indicates McCown couldn't have delivered. He threw two beautiful deep touchdown passes in a turnover-free Week 2 victory over the Tennessee Titans, which should have been more than enough to retain the starting job. 

Maybe Pettine is old school and doesn't believe McCown should lose his starting role due to an injury, but that's just the nature of this business (ask the New York Jets). And since the expectation is that the 22-year-old 2014 first-round pick will eventually take the reins from a 36-year-old who has never sniffed a Pro Bowl, this wouldn't exactly be a controversial Wally Pipp situation. 

Besides, McCown may have only won the starting job in August because of an injury to Manziel, who was gaining momentum as the potential starter before suffering an elbow injury halfway through the preseason. 

This would be different if the Browns were a megacontender and McCown was a consistent, reliable starter, but that's not the case. This isn't a Brett Favre-Aaron Rodgers scenario. 

Manziel marinated on the bench for the majority of his rookie season, which is oftentimes more than a young quarterback needs in an era in which they're groomed to start from the get-go. If he's not ready now, he never will be. 

Rodgers spent the first three years of his career behind Brett Favre in Green Bay, but Favre was a reliable starter and the Packers were contenders. 

Manziel may never be Rodgers, but he has a hell of a lot more potential (right now and long term) than McCown, who will never be Favre.

And the Browns won't be mistaken for the Packers, or for that matter, any NFL squad that clearly displays the ability to put itself in a position to contend. 

If you're searching for a reason why the Browns will always be the Browns, look no further than this move. 

Cleveland Browns Syndrome has taken another victim. Poor Mike Pettine. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon