Cleveland Browns: Josh McCown the QB – if he is healthy

Nov 1, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown (13) and quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) warm up before the game between the Cleveland Browns and the Arizona Cardinals at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine set Browns Nation on fire Tuesday by announcing the quarterback Josh McCown will return to the starting role – with one caveat.

McCown has to be healthy first.

“I want to wait to hear that (Josh is) healthy in order to make it, but if he’s ready to go and able to execute the gameplan and not have to change the way you call a game to protect a guy, then yeah, he will be,” Pettine said. “I think this period of time helped but I would still consider him day-to-day. Hopefully, we’ll know soon. That’s not a decision, especially with the quarterback, that you want to wait until the end of the week so we’ll see.”

While those comments set off a predictable outcry from certain corners of Browns Twitter, should they have?

“I get the call for ‘Hey, why not (Manziel)?’ but we’re tasked as coaches to put the roster out there that’s going to give us the best opportunity to win.” – Mike Pettine

The biggest (or at least loudest) argument against McCown is that the Browns are 2-7, so what’s the point in playing him? There may be some validity to that line of thinking, but that excuses that Manziel is responsible for two of those losses – last week’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals and the opening game against the New York Jets, when McCown played only one series.

Other than that, it’s hard to make a case the McCown is not a better option for the Browns right now as he has outperformed Manziel in every statistical category. As Pat McManamon points out at ESPN, McCown ranks 12th in the league in passer rating (95.2), 11th in yards per game (271 despite playing one series against the Jets) and 12th in completion percentage (65 percent).

As for Johnny? Well, maybe not so much.

The Browns are averaging five fewer points per game with Manziel at quarterback, despite having the same offensive players around him, and while Manziel had a nice scoring drive against the Bengals last week, the overall numbers were, if we’re being kind, not very good.

If you have not yet read this article by Stephen White, you really should as soon as you are done here. In it, White goes into great detail about why Manziel is simply not ready to be a starting quarterback yet, starting with this little nugget:

"On almost every one of Manziel’s positive passing plays he actually also lost yards. The only passing plays where that wasn’t the case were generally the screens that he threw. On plays where he had to actually decide who to throw to based on the route combinations and coverage, Manziel almost inevitably found ways to minimize the offense’s production."

"By the end of the game it didn’t look like any of his receivers were still running their routes as hard as they had been. Probably because at that point they were no longer expecting him to actually sit in the pocket and go through his reads which made their crisp routes null and void."

The biggest takeaway from White’s article is this:

"When we watch the games on TV every week, we are at the mercy of what production crews decide to show us. From the camera angles to the replays we only get a certain amount of insight into what actually happens on each play. We also rarely have any way of knowing how each play is supposed to look as opposed to how the part of it that we get to see actually looks."

"The coaching staff, especially the head coach, usually notices when things are not going the way they are supposed to. For instance, if a guy is wide open on a pass play, we may not know the guy was open, but the coaching staff usually does. That’s because they are anticipating that guy being open before the ball is snapped. They know what the route combinations are supposed to look like and they can see what kind of coverage the opposing defense is running."

"So when that guy who is supposed to be open is in fact open, but the ball doesn’t come to him, the jig is up when it comes to the staff."

That point is one that members of the Manziel Mafia continually choose to ignore. The coaches know what is going on, they are around Manziel and McCown more than anyone else, and they know who is ready, who is not and who gives the Browns the best chance on Sundays.

“I think it’s important to send the message we are still trying to win every single game.” – Joe Thomas

And it continues to clearly not be Manziel.

Does that mean it will never be Manziel? Or that we may not still see him Sunday at Heinz Field? Of course not, which is something else that Pettine said today but that was overlooked.

“He’s gotten better (and) he’s improved,” Pettine said of Manziel, going against the narrative that he never has a kind word for Manziel. “There were some examples, not just in the Cincinnati game but going back to Tennessee and in practice and the Jets game, where he’s proven that he can (be effective). We knew it would take some time for him to be able to adapt. He’s getting better. To me, he’s headed in the right direction.”

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Where you fall on this argument goes back to what direction you believe the Browns should go the rest of the season.

If you believe the goal is to be competitive, then McCown is the choice. If you are ready to get a jumpstart on 2016, then the club should roll with Manziel.

The inconvenient truth is that it may matter who the Browns turn to at quarterback, especially this week against the Steelers. Neither McCown or Manziel are going to help the run defense, or figure out a way to cover wide receiver Antonio Brown.

And if you want to see Manziel take the field against the Steelers? Well, don’t give up hope just yet. All it will take is a “friendly” slap from owner Jimmy Haslam or team president Alec Scheiner to McCown’s ribs this week at practice to put Manziel back in the spotlight.

Until then, hang in there.