Should Cleveland Browns Stick with Johnny Manziel or Turn Back to Josh McCown?

As of Monday, the Cleveland Browns have not made any official announcement as to whether Johnny Manziel or Josh McCown will be the starting quarterback in Week 10 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, let alone who will handle the job for the remainder of the season. It's also unknown at this point how much McCown has recovered from the rib and shoulder injuries that resulted in Manziel starting against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 9.

And it's a difficult decision to make. There are compelling cases for why Cleveland should commit to either quarterback.

Though the Browns have only two wins to this point, McCown hasn't been a major reason for why they have seven losses. He's completed 65 percent of his 254 passing attempts, has 1,897 passing yards and has thrown 11 touchdowns to four interceptions. But he's also lost six fumbles, the majority of which have come while being sacked, which he has been 22 times so far this year.

But because the Browns have struggled on both defense and in running the ball on offense, McCown has been called upon to carry the entire team. And while that may be something he's comfortable doing, that doesn't necessarily mean it plays to his strengths.

That reliance on passing, though, is an argument for keeping Manziel off the field for now. His lack of experience is apparent, though it's also obvious that he's making progress at the position. Browns head coach Mike Pettine has said numerous times in 2015 that he believes McCown gives them the best chance to win games, and if he is still of that mentality, no amount of progress made by Manziel is going to change that.

McCown's best efforts, though, have not yielded the wins that Pettine has imagined. And given the Browns' remaining schedule, it's hard to imagine a wholesale turnaround. For all of McCown's positives, things like the inconsistent run game and poor defense will continue to cause this team to struggle. 

If McCown's presence is related to wins, and the Browns aren't winning, then perhaps a permanent switch to Manziel could be a good thing. It's not a sign of giving up, but rather that this bad season can at least present an opportunity for Manziel to learn on the job and for the Browns coaches to get a better idea of what they have in him, presuming he's still in the team's future plans. 

Player	Starts	Atts.	Comp.	Comp.%	Yds.	TD	INT	Sack	QBR
McCown	7	254	165	65.0%	1,897	11	4	22	95.2
Manziel	2	83	43	51.8%	561	4	1	8	84.5

Teams commonly will use the latter parts of losing seasons to give playing time to those who normally wouldn't see much of it, as a means of evaluating the roster beyond a week's practices. The Browns could easily take this same approach with the quarterback position.

After all, McCown is a known. He's 36 years old. Manziel, meanwhile, has just 10 games' (and four starts') worth of experience and is a work in progress whose progress would benefit from more work. What is also true, though, is that Manziel has not been as productive as McCown this year, and putting him in the starting quarterback spot could stymie the one part of the Browns' collective attack that has been its bright spot.

Manziel has completed just 51.8 percent of his passes this year, for 561 yards, four touchdowns and one interception while taking eight sacks. He's also rushed—or scrambled—14 times for 73 yards. And, when in the pocket—where Pettine would like Manziel to stay, for better or for worse, at least more often—he's still clearly got some growing to do.

Jason Miller/Getty Images

ESPN's Pat McManamon noted on Monday that Manziel has completed only 57 percent of his pocket passes this year and 50 percent of them against the Bengals, netting the Browns 95 yards on Thursday night. He also completed just 36.3 percent of the out-of-pocket passes he attempted in Week 9, though four of those 11 attempts did net him 73 yards. He has a 35 percent completion rate when out of the pocket in all of his 2015 throws, with seven completions, though two of those seven did result in touchdowns.

And the Bengals were also able to keep Manziel in the pocket in the second half of Thursday's game, leading to Manziel having only 40 passing yards in the final two quarters of the game while taking three sacks. That this occurred with a simple, four-man rush most of the time also further highlights where Manziel is still limited as an NFL-capable quarterback.

The question, though, is whether these problems can be ironed out by practice, meetings and film study alone or if Manziel could improve in these areas much more quickly by being given actual playing time. And, if it can but the learning curve is still steep, what could that cost the Browns? Could it cost them more than keeping McCown entrenched as the starting quarterback, or will the results be no different even if the quarterback stat lines are?

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

There's also the matter of coaching job security to consider. The Browns would be far more willing to see what they have in Manziel if team owner Jimmy Haslam is still of the mindset that he's not going to gut the coaching and front office staffs in the offseason no matter the win-loss record.

But that summertime promise doesn't feel, right now, like it will be upheld given not just the two wins, but how the seven losses have come about. Pettine and company aren't going to gamble with unproven talent, including Manziel, if their job securities are tied to wins and McCown is still viewed as the best man to help earn them.

We may view Cleveland's season as essentially over right now, but for Pettine and the rest of the coaching and front office members, it most certainly is not. The job, after all, is to win. And, with seven more opportunities to do that, there may be no choice but for Cleveland to stick with McCown as long as he's healthy enough to play.

Ultimately, the Browns are between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they've dug in their heels on McCown's status on the depth chart. And they haven't been wrong. McCown is 11th in the league in passing yards per game and 12th in quarterback rating. He is playing well despite the Browns' other struggles. On the other hand, those struggles do make a compelling case for Manziel to get more playing time.

It really does seem like no decision the Browns make at quarterback will be the right one. Because McCown is doing what Pettine wants a quarterback to do—and doing it better, statistically, than a plethora of other quarterbacks around the league—he's not likely to lose his hold on the job without a solid reason.

If the Browns' seven losses were clearly McCown's fault, the situation may be different. But until and unless the coaches really think the team has nothing to play for, Manziel will likely have to remain on the bench.