HEADLINES

Johnny Manziel

Austin Davis To Start For Browns

December 2nd, 2015 at 10:15am CST by Luke Adams

With Josh McCown out for the rest of the season with a broken collarbone, the Browns won’t hand the reins back to Johnny Manziel — at least not yet. The team announced today in a press release that Austin Davis will get the start in Week 13 against the Bengals.

“Austin took advantage of his opportunity on Monday night. He was prepared, played well and put us in position to win,” said head coach Mike Pettine in a statement. “He’s been great in the quarterback room all season and he has earned the right to start on Sunday. We expect him to play well.”

Davis was called upon on Monday when McCown went down, with Manziel serving as the No. 3 quarterback in that game, so today’s decision doesn’t come as a real surprise. Still, it shows that the Browns are serious about disciplining the second-year signal-caller for his off-field behavior.

Manziel, who turns 23 this coming Sunday, was removed from the starting job last week after photos surfaced of him partying at a nightclub in Austin. Reports indicated that the Texas A&M product lied to the Browns about the photos, though the club never confirmed that.

At some point, particularly if Davis struggles mightily or goes down with an injury of his own, the Browns may determine that it’s worth getting a look at Manziel down the stretch, with the team well out of playoff contention. For now though, he’ll serve as Davis’ backup as the Browns prepare for Cincinnati.

Browns Place Josh McCown On IR

December 2nd, 2015 at 9:35am CST by Zachary Links

WEDNESDAY, 9:35am: The Browns have officially ended McCown’s season by placing him on injured reserve, the team announced today in a press release.

TUESDAY, 2:09pm: Browns quarterback Josh McCown is done for the season with a fractured collarbone, coach Mike Pettine told reporters (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). When asked about who will start the team’s upcoming game, Pettine indicated that things are still up in the air.

McCown finishes the year with fairly respectable numbers. The Browns only won one of his eight starts, but he completed 63.7% of his passes, throwing for 2,109 yards, 12 touchdowns, and just four interceptions. Having signed a three-year contract with Cleveland, McCown still has some guaranteed money left on his deal in 2016, so he’s a good bet to return either as the starter or backup.

Now, the question becomes whether Pettine will install Johnny Manziel or Austin Davis as the starting quarterback going forward in 2015. After Manziel was removed from the starting job, he was moved down to No. 3 on Cleveland’s depth chart behind Davis. Technically speaking, that would put Davis in line for the temporary starting role, but the organization ostensibly would want to see what they have in Manziel rather that Davis, whose ceiling is likely as a backup in the NFL.

NFC East Notes: Cowboys, Manziel, Hardy

December 1st, 2015 at 4:31pm CST by Zachary Links

Here’s a look at the NFC East:

  • In a radio interview, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones revealed that quarterback Johnny Manziel was rated among the top 5-6 players on the team’s board, as Ed Werder of ESPN.com tweets. Jones’ fondness for Manziel was well documented prior to the 2014 draft. The Browns demoted Manziel to the No. 3 spot on the QB depth chart earlier this season after more questions arose about his off-field behavior. However, with Josh McCown done for the season, Cleveland could conceivably turn to him as its starter rather than Austin Davis, who is penciled in as the No. 2 signal caller.
  • Many have assumed that Greg Hardy‘s time with the Cowboys is up since he has only 4.5 sacks and Dallas has lost seven of the eight games he’s started. That’s not quite the case, Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN.com writes. Hardy will be a free agent at season’s end, but the defensive end is unlikely to get the long-term deal he wants thanks to his reputation. Other teams might choose to steer clear of Hardy altogether, and Taylor theorizes that could pave the way to a reunion between Hardy and the Cowboys. Taylor cautions fans not to be shocked if the Cowboys re-sign Hardy, provided that they can get him on another deal that protects them in the event of an off-the-field issue.
  • On Monday, Eagles head coach Chip Kelly denied a report that he met recently with USC officials regarding their head coaching job. For his part, offensive tackle Jason Peters says that he didn’t need the reassurance from Kelly, but he did feel that some of the younger players needed to hear it, Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. Kelly addressed the rumors with his players first thing in morning and told them that he’ll be staying put as long as the Eagles will have him (link).

Josh McCown Likely Out For Season

December 1st, 2015 at 8:42am CST by Luke Adams

Josh McCown‘s return to the Browns’ starting lineup didn’t last long, as the veteran quarterback, who has been plagued by health issues all year, went down with a possible broken collarbone during Monday night’s loss to the Ravens. According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, McCown will probably be out for the rest of the 2015 season.

The Browns have yet to confirm the diagnosis on McCown, and Cabot concedes that the collarbone may not be broken, but she hears from a source that the injury is likely serious enough to end the 36-year-old’s season either way. Considering the team has a league-worst 2-9 record, it’s hard to imagine he’ll be rushed back.

If McCown is officially ruled out for the year, the team will have a decision to make on his replacement. Austin Davis came on in relief on Monday night, while No. 3 quarterback Johnny Manziel sat on the bench. However, the club may ultimately decide that seeing what Manziel can do during the season’s last few weeks is too important to keep him behind Davis on the depth chart.

Manziel, of course, was removed from the starting job last week after photos surfaced of him partying at a nightclub in Austin. Reports indicated that the second-year signal-caller lied to the Browns about the photos, though the club never confirmed that.

As for McCown, if this is the end of his season, he’ll finish with fairly respectable numbers. The Browns only won one of his eight starts, but he completed 63.7% of his passes, throwing for 2,109 yards, 12 touchdowns, and just four interceptions. Having signed a three-year contract with Cleveland, McCown still has some guaranteed money left on his deal in 2016, so he’s a good bet to return either as the starter or backup.

AFC Notes: Collins, Manning, Browns

November 29th, 2015 at 9:23pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Star linebacker Jamie Collins has been out of the Patriots’ lineup since the end of October because of an illness, one that president Jonathan Kraft isn’t worried will spread throughout the team, per Mike Petraglia of WEEI.

“Jamie’s getting better and getting stronger every day,” Kraft said Sunday. “I know people in non-football life that end up with really bad viruses and get knocked out of their professional lives for a while.”

Continued Kraft, “This was something that doesn’t have us worried about the physical infrastructure at the facility. There wasn’t anything related to Jamie’s issues that had anything to do with the facility.”

Kraft’s words indicate that Collins’ illness isn’t MRSA, a staph infection-causing disease that has affected NFL teams in the past. Most recently, it ended the season of Giants tight end Daniel Fells in October.

Collins returned to practice Friday, so it appears he’ll be back in game action sometime this season.

And now a look at some of the Patriots’ AFC counterparts, including their Sunday night opponent:

  • Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, currently on the shelf because of a plantar fascia injury, is eager to return to the field as soon as possible. The team doesn’t share in his eagerness, though, and it’s causing friction between the two sides, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports. Regarding the possibility of a healthy Manning backing up Brock Osweiler, a source told La Canfora, “We know this much — he’s not going to go quietly. He’s going to have to be dealt with.”
  • After briefly losing his job to Johnny Manziel, Josh McCown is back as the Browns’ starting quarterback – which he’s ambivalent about, according to Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal. While McCown relishes playing again, he isn’t pleased that his opportunity comes at the expense of Manziel – whom the Browns benched because of off-field issues. “You understand that you have a job to do, and the coaches make the decision and tell you you’re playing and you move forward accordingly,” said McCown. “But at the same time, I’m in the room with [Manziel] every day, and we’ve built a relationship. I’m a big advocate of his and a fan and a friend as well.”
  • The Browns have noteworthy free agents-to-be in safety Tashaun Gipson, tight end Gary Barnidge and receiver Travis Benjamin. If they only re-sign one, it should be the 25-year-old Gipson, writes Tom Reed of Cleveland.com. Gipson hasn’t been as sharp this season after leading the AFC in interceptions in 2013 and ’14, which could drop his price. That’s something Reed believes the Browns should look to capitalize on after they couldn’t reach a long-term deal with Gipson last offseason, when he was coming off a Pro Bowl campaign.

Sunday Roundup: Marrone, Martin, Keenum

November 29th, 2015 at 12:36pm CST by Rory Parks

As the afternoon games get underway, let’s take a look at some news and notes from around the league:

  • We heard earlier today that Jaguars OL coach Doug Marrone will be viewed as a top head coaching candidate this offseason, and Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com explains why. As Florio writes, Marrone, who became available after opting to terminate his relationship with Buffalo last year, came on the market “a little too unexpectedly” for teams to scrap their existing plans at the time. Now, however, with a high number of potential head coaching vacancies and a relatively small number of truly qualified candidates, Marrone will be an attractive option, especially given that the Bills are doing less (record-wise) with more talent under Rex Ryan than they did under Marrone.
  • Former NFL agent Joel Corry tweets that there is no need to speculate as to whether the Buccaneers will put the franchise tag on Doug Martin, as the nearly $12MM cap number for a franchised running back is too steep in today’s NFL. The last time the tag was used on an RB was in 2012, when the Ravens tagged Ray Rice and the Bears tagged Matt Forte. The cap number for a franchised RB at the time was $7.7MM.
  • ESPN’s Chris Mortensen tweets that, even though the NFL has apparently closed the book on whether the Rams should be penalized for last week’s concussion controversy surrounding Case Keenum, the NFL Players Association is continuing its own investigation.
  • In his latest mailbag, Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com looks at what the Browns might expect to receive if they were to trade Johnny Manziel at this point, and he notes that the best the Browns could hope for is a future pick conditioned on Manziel’s active status and number of starts.
  • After the Lions promoted Isa Abdul-Quddus to a starting role and moved James Ihedigbo to the bench, they began to see a noticeable improvement from the back end of their defense, as Kyle Meinke of MLive.com observes. Abdul-Quddus is not as physical as Ihedigbo, but he covers much more ground and has established himself as a quality option in the team’s secondary, particularly in light of the recent injury to Glover Quin. Adbul-Quddus, who signed a one-year deal with Detroit last year, may be putting himself in line for a multi-year pact this offseason.
  • David Moore of The Dallas Morning News examines the futures for Cowboys defensive backs Byron Jones and Morris Claiborne, predicting that Dallas plans to move Jones to safety moving forward, thereby increasing the likelihood that the team retains Claiborne.
  • In a series of three articles, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com reexamines the Eagles‘ offseason decisions, offers his thoughts on the Jets‘ rebuilding process, and previews the 2016 class of free agent tight ends.

North Notes: Manziel, Ansah, Bears

November 27th, 2015 at 6:01pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo isn’t sure if recently demoted quarterback Johnny Manziel will be active for the team’s game against Baltimore on Monday. However, DeFilippo won’t rule out Manziel playing again this season and is encouraged by the second-year man’s on-field progress, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

“I like what I’ve seen,” said DeFilippo. “I really do. Even the jump he made from the Cincinnati game to the Pittsburgh game was a huge jump. I think we’d all agree on that. I think Johnny has played enough football where we know what we have in him.”

DeFilippo went on to state that he believes Manziel can still be a franchise quarterback, which looks unlikely for a player whose career has been defined by off-field problems and on-field inconsistency. To his credit, Manziel did have the best game of his short NFL tenure – a 33-of-45, 372-yard showing in a Nov. 15 loss to the Steelers – before the Browns benched him for poor conduct away from the field.

Now the latest from the NFC North:

  • Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah helped make Thanksgiving 2015 a miserable one for the Eagles in a 45-14 shellacking on Thursday. The third-year man tortured Philadelphia for 3.5 sacks, giving him an NFC-best 11.5 for the season. Ansah said afterward that he drew motivation from the fact that the Eagles passed on him in the 2013 draft, per The Associated Press. Ansah wanted to be an Eagle, but they chose offensive tackle Lane Johnson fourth overall instead. Ansah, who went to Detroit one pick later, faced off against Johnson on Thursday and got the better of the matchup. “It felt very good beating him and getting to the quarterback,” Ansah said.
  • Given the Bears’ recent resurgence, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com wonders whether defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will join offensive coordinator Adam Gase as a potential head coaching candidate in the offseason (Twitter link). After a rough start to the season that featured four losses in six games, the Bears are 3-2 since their bye week. Fangio’s defense has played a key role, giving up fewer than 15 points per game during that stretch. That includes stymieing rival Green Bay in a 17-13 road win Thursday.
  • If Gase departs in the offseason to become a head coach, he likely won’t be able to take quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains with him, according to Dan Pompei of Bleacher Report (via Twitter). Loggains is under contract next year and would likely be the Bears’ choice to take over for Gase.

Johnny Manziel Lied To Browns About Photos

November 26th, 2015 at 6:42pm CST by Zachary Links

6:42pm: Manziel’s latest career-altering incident was precipitated by a late-night stay at a nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, after he attended the Michigan State-Ohio State game, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports. Patrons at the club were prohibited from taking photos while Manziel was in attendance, Cabot notes.

Adding to the Browns’ serious stance on their recently promoted then-demoted quarterback: the team preferred Manziel stick around Cleveland and lay low during the team’s bye week, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). When the 22-year-old signal-caller defied their wishes and sharply deviated from their plan, the Browns felt “betrayed.”

1:52pm: It turns out that Johnny Manziel wasn’t just benched for an apparent relapse into partying. After seeing recent photos of Manziel drinking during his bye week in Texas, the Browns confronted the quarterback and he told the organization that they were old pics, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports (via PFT). Not only that, but Manziel also instructed his friends to lie if they were asked about the photos.

Manziel, of course, was demoted to No. 3 on the depth chart earlier this week with Josh McCown sliding into the starting role. Austin Davis will serve as Cleveland’s No. 2 option in Week 12, should McCown get injured or falter. Still, coach Mike Pettine insists that the team has not discussed cutting Johnny Football loose.

A primary concern about the footage that showed Manziel partying in Austin is that it comes after the QB checked himself into rehab earlier this year. However, Pettine declined to comment on whether the team would encourage Manziel to go back to rehab, pointing out that it’s a privacy issue.

A week ago, the Browns had announced that Manziel would be the team’s starting quarterback for the rest of the season, in order to evaluate how he fits into Cleveland’s plans for 2016 and beyond. That question will remain unanswered if Manziel sits on the bench down the stretch, but according to Pettine, the need to discipline Manziel was “too important,” and outweighed the need to evaluate him.

Extra Points: Martin, Manziel, Kelly, Coaches

November 26th, 2015 at 5:51pm CST by Zachary Links

As we progress into Thanksgiving night, here’s some news from around the league, beginning in Tampa Bay.

  • Buccaneers running back Doug Martin is set to hit the open market after this season, but it sounds like he wants to stay put. “I love Tampa. I built a house here,” Martin said, according to Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com (on Twitter). When asked if Tampa is his No. 1 priority, the tailback responded in the affirmative. On Tuesday, coach Lovie Smith called the fourth-year back a “priority” for the team in the offseason.
  • Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) hears that the decision by Browns coach Mike Pettine to bench Johnny Manziel is part of an overall power struggle between Pettine and GM Ray Farmer. Farmer and others within the organization would like to see Manziel continue on as the starter in 2015, but Pettine doesn’t believe that Manziel has made any strides towards getting his act together. Cole speculates that Pettine could move to trade or cut Manziel in the offseason and that could lead to a showdown between the coach and GM.
  • Black coaches around the league are concerned with the lack of black offensive coordinators or quarterback coaches, Cole hears (video link). There are only three black OCs — Hue Jackson (Bengals), Edgar Bennett (Packers) and Harold Goodwin (Cardinals) — and only Jackson calls plays for his team. Cole goes on to mention how there are no black quarterback coaches and how the coaches that spoke to him are observing a key avenue for potential promotions being largely cut off for black coaches.
  • Months after a Chip Kelly–Marcus Mariota reunion didn’t end up transpiring in the draft, the embattled Eagles coach could end up instructing him again, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. Should Kelly be interested in coaching the Titans, whose placement of Mike Mularkey as head coach Florio views as a temporary status considering his past, the teams could work out a trade if Jeffrey Lurie is willing to part with Kelly after what’s looking like a disappointing season concludes. A trade or Kelly forcing his way out of Philadelphia could be in play, Florio offers.

    Sam Robinson contributed to this report 

Pettine: No Discussion Of Cutting Manziel

November 25th, 2015 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

A day after demoting Johnny Manziel from the starting quarterback role to No. 3 on the depth, Browns head coach Mike Pettine spoke to reporters, including Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, about the decision. Pettine’s comments today came about 24 hours after he told the media he was “very” disappointed in Manziel after video footage surfaced of the 22-year-old partying at a nightclub in Austin, Texas.

While there was plenty of speculation that this week’s decision spelled the beginning of the end of Manziel’s tenure in Cleveland, Pettine insisted that the move was “absolutely necessary to maximze his chance for future success” (Twitter link). The head coach views the demotion as a hurdle – rather than a “dead end” – for the second-year quarterback, adding that the team didn’t discuss the possibility of cutting Manziel (Twitter links).

A primary concern about the footage that showed Manziel partying in Austin is that it comes after the QB checked himself into rehab earlier this year. However, Pettine declined to comment today on whether the team would encourage Manziel to go back to rehab, pointing out that it’s a privacy issue (Twitter link).

A week ago, the Browns had announced that Manziel would be the team’s starting quarterback for the rest of the season, in order to evaluate how he fits into Cleveland’s plans for 2016 and beyond. That question will remain unanswered if Manziel sits on the bench down the stretch, but according to Pettine, the need to discipline Manziel was “too important,” and outweighed the need to evaluate him (Twitter link).

Josh McCown will start for the Browns this coming Monday, with Austin Davis backing him up.

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