Browns Links: Manziel, Pryor, Johnson

The latest on the Browns:

• While backup quarterback Johnny Manziel looked much better than starter Josh McCown during Thursday’s game against Buffalo, don’t expect the two to flip-flop on the depth chart. Bud Shaw of the Northeast Ohio Media Group writes that Manziel lost a lot of trust within the organization as a rookie last year and it’s going to take more than solid preseason work to unseat McCown.
• Terrelle Pryor, who’s in the incipient stages of his career as a wide receiver after switching from quarterback in June, is far from a shoo-in to make the Browns’ roster. The hamstring injury that has bothered the fifth-year man for nearly all of August isn’t helping his cause, according to head coach Mike Pettine. “He’s not guaranteed a spot,” Pettine said Saturday, according to Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon-Journal. “He’s got to play, and that window narrows every day he’s not out there.”
• Fellow Browns wideout Dwayne Bowe seems a lot more bullish about Pryor than Pettine does.  “He’s a specimen,” Bowe said Saturday, according to ESPN’s Pat McManamon. “You’ve got to have a guy like that on the field.” 
• Like Pryor, third-round rookie Duke Johnson has also been felled by a hamstring this month. But, despite sitting out most of August and both of Cleveland’s preseason games, the ex-Miami Hurricane is still confident he can be the Browns’ starting running back as early as Week 1. “I feel like I can (start) but that’s not my decision,” he told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “If I’m not that starting guy, just know whoever is that starting guy, that’s the man for the job because we came out here and competed and we push each other to be the best.”  The Browns are hoping to get some Johnson on the field for their next preseason game. Pettine stated that “the next two weeks are big for Duke.”