Brian Hoyer to Start Browns First Pre-Season Game

The Cleveland Browns just wrapped up their day at camp and the most noticeable news is that Brian Hoyer, not Johnny Manziel, will start the first pre-season game. Mike Pettine noted as much following practice:

Pettine: Brian Hoyer is our starting QB vs. Detroit
— Kevin Jones (@Mr_KevinJones) August 6, 2014

While this has been expected the amount of work Manziel has gotten with the first team, including all day today, raised some doubts. Hoyer hasn’t been excellent, including a couple fumbled snaps today that may or may not have been the fault of the backup center. Pettine noted that Hoyer hasn’t done anything to lead them to take the starting job for Saturday away from him:

#browns pettine on why he's starting Hoyer: "he's done nothing to have that taken away from him"
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) August 6, 2014

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his performance. It seems as though Pettine was hoping Hoyer would take the job away versus just trying to hold on. Instead Hoyer seems to have shown little room for growth while Manziel has tons of learning and improving that he can do. Hoyer may be feeling the pressure as he was still on the field working on things when interviews were going on:

Hoyer’s times on the field, before this season, have all lacked any sort of pressure. There were not expectations on him and he was able to play free and easy. This camp is significantly different as the Browns are expecting him to start and want to be competitive in the AFC North. Could pressure be a struggle for Hoyer? Noted Fear the Sword Cavaliers writer/editor David Zavac had a thought back to Hoyer’s days at Michigan state:

Hoyer is rattled. Saw this at Michigan State.
— David Zavac (@DavidZavac) August 6, 2014

Brian Hoyer's 5th year at Michigan State: 51% completion rate, 9 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, 6.2 yards per attempt.
— David Zavac (@DavidZavac) August 6, 2014