The Browns want you to believe they’re going to give Johnny Manziel another chance

The Cleveland Browns’ new executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown confirmed Thursday that Johnny Manziel was fined for missing a mandatory meeting with team doctors on the final Sunday of the regular season. That fine could be the last public interaction between the Browns and Manziel. After two seasons, the two sides appear to be going their separate ways.

Brown didn’t say that explicitly while speaking with Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com on Thursday, but that’s what has been reported in several places now. Earlier this month, MMQB’s Peter King said that the Browns are “so done” with Manziel.

Brown didn’t say he was giving up on Manziel, only that Manziel “owns a lot of this in terms of the future of his career.“ If King’s report is accurate, Manziel would much, much rather be with the Dallas Cowboys. Brown also said that new head coach Hue Jackson would have “major input” on personnel decisions, including whether to keep Manziel. Jackson said last week that the Browns need a quarterback, and implied he wasn’t already on the team.

During a press conference Thursday, Brown added, “We believe we need to get an established QB here. That doesn’t mean we have to find him off the roster necessarily.”

The Browns aren’t making a decision now on Manziel because they don’t need to. There are still more than three months until the NFL Draft, and a little less than two months to the start of free agency.

The Browns have also given off the sense that they’re willing to see how Manziel responds. Brown didn’t discuss Manziel’s off-field problems other than to say “it’s a fair question” to wonder why the team didn’t know that the quarterback was reportedly in Las Vegas while he should have been with the team and rehabbing his concussion. If the Browns are investigating Manziel’s habits, they’re not revealing it to reporters.

“How much can we do?” Browns asked. “And I think for Johnny, he’s an individual, and he’s a man, and he’s going to have to obviously own a lot of this in terms of his future career.”

Jackson may be right that Manziel is a “non-starter” at this point, but Manziel has unquestionably shown excellent promise at times. He threw for 372 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 10, for example, and rushed for 108 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 16. His overall record as a starter is just 2-6, but both win came this season and accounted for all but one of the Browns’ three victories.

The Browns aren’t being unfair. The bad has outweighed the good through Manziel’s first two seasons. His best moments were overwritten by things like videos that surfaced of the quarterback partying, or being pulled over for an argument with his girlfriend that got out of hand in October.

If all there is to know about Manziel was contained to the field, the Browns might be happy to let him play out his contract and see if he reaches the height of his potential. That’s not the case, and so Manziel is facing an accelerated timeline. He will need to mature rapidly wherever he plays next season, on and off the field, because he has nearly exhausted any remaining patience for him.