It wasn't Johnny Manziel who replaced an injured Josh McCown for the Cleveland Browns Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens. Instead, that duty went to journeyman veteran Austin Davis, who failed to lead the team to a win in last-second loss — Cleveland's ninth on the season.
Now that McCown is lost for the season with a broken right collarbone, Cleveland has a decision to make. Will it give the starting duty to a quarterback in Manziel that was demoted from first string to third string after allegedly partying away the team's bye week? If not, does that signify the end of Manziel's career with the Browns?
At 2-9 on the year, Cleveland isn't playing for anything more than draft positioning at this point. As a second-year player that the team exhausted a first-round pick on, it seems to make sense that Cleveland would want to see what it has in Manziel. Unfortunately for the former Texas A&M standout, that decision might have already been made.
McCown, 36, figures to be back with the Browns next season. He's due less thatn $5 million, a sum of money that is relatively low for a signal caller of his ilk.
While McCown — now lost for the season — did suffer through a ton of injuries with the Browns, he performed at a relatively high level when on the field. The veteran completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,109 yards with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions in eight games (all starts).
Whether it's Davis or Manziel under center for the final five games of the season, Cleveland will likely be finding itself in an all-too-familiar position of having to go quarterback early in the 2016 NFL draft. With a 2-9 record, that might very well be in the top five.