Cleveland Browns already giving up on Johnny Manziel?

Are the Cleveland Browns already giving up on former first round pick Johnny Manziel after one season?

The Cleveland Browns thought they were getting a dual-threat player and box office draw when they moved up in the first round in the 2014 NFL Draft to select former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel.

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What they got was a player who couldn’t beat out Brian Hoyer for the starting job until the end of the season and when he played he looked overwhelmed and overmatched and later checked into rehab.

The Browns have publicly supported Manziel as he works to defeat his personal demons in rehab, but according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the Browns are giving serious thought to giving up on Manziel.

The #Browns are close to giving up on Johnny Manziel, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen. That runs contrary to team's public stance.
— Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) April 2, 2015

As Jeff Schudel from the Morning Herald points out in the above tweet, this contradicts the team’s public stance on their second of two first round picks from last year. It wouldn’t be surprising to have that topic bounced around among the team’s front office executives and head coach Mike Pettine and they can’t abandon their player while he’s in rehab, so they have to support him in public.

But it is one thing to support a player on a personal standpoint and a completely different thing to want to have Manziel be employed by the Browns or even be the team’s starting quarterback.

Manziel was 18-of-35 passing for 175 yards and two interceptions in parts of five games and was 0-2 as a starter. He also ran nine times for 29 yards and one touchdown.

Without factoring in his off-the-field concerns, does that sound like a player the Browns should invest more time and money?

It doesn’t scream future Pro Bowler or a player who is going to lead the Browns to the playoffs, a place they haven’t been since 2002 and have only two postseason appearances since losing the 1989 AFC Championship Game to the Denver Broncos.

You don’t see teams giving up on first round picks after one year, but if there’s extenuating circumstances and I would consider a player in rehab just that, then it’s not surprising in the least to hear the Browns are contemplating giving up on Manziel or that they could draft a quarterback in the first round in the 2015 NFL Draft.

I don’t think that decision will be made before training camp this summer and they’ll give him every chance to win the starting quarterback job in the preseason, but if they can’t trust him and he doesn’t show marked improvement on the field, it’ll be time to part ways.

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