It was well known that this off-season has been particularly tumultuous for the Cleveland Browns, a franchise not unfamiliar with tumultuous times.
This is a franchise that is considered a perennial underachiever, and has not qualified for the playoffs since 2002, has not won a postseason game since 1994, and has not reached the AFC title game since all the way back in the 1989 season. They are one of only four franchises left in the NFL never to have reached the Super Bowl, and one of only two franchises existing before the 1995 season that has failed to ever qualify for the Super Bowl (the Detroit Lions being the other one).
But the Browns troubles seem to be particularly pronounced during this off-season, even by their standards. The owner was obviously quite pissed off with how the season ended, as the Browns crumbled from a 7-4 first place position fairly late in the season, to losing the last five games to end solidly in last place in the tough AFC North. He cleaned house at the end of the season. Then, Ray Farmer, the General manager, got in some trouble that essentially earned him a suspension during the first four weeks of the upcoming season and cost the team a $250,000 fine.
Now, ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Browns are basically just about past Johnny Manziel, the once flashy, but now mostly troubled, quarterback who checked himself into a rehab for substance abuse in February. This is apparently not an April Fool's joke, either. Here is what Mortensen had to say on the Mike and Mike show on the matter:
"I think about 90 percent that they have moved on [from Manziel] in their own minds except that they really don't know who they're going to get when Johnny leaves rehab, which has been an extended stay — a two-month stay. He should be getting out sometime in the first week of April if they're satisfied that he's ready to go out and get into society and that whatever deep-rooted problems that he had has been addressed. OK, now he's part of your depth chart. You have Josh McCown."
The Browns had apparently tried to acquire Sam Bradford from the Rams, but had no quarterback to offer them. Also, Bradford likely would not have signed an extension with the Browns, which made them reluctant to offer a first round pick for him. So, they did not ultimately acquire Bradford, who was traded to the Eagles for Nick Foles.
Still, the Browns apparently are ready to move on without Manziel:
"The bottom line is that Johnny Manziel's future with the Browns has been in question. When they were putting together half of a new offensive staff, Manziel's name barely even came up in conversation."
It looks like despite his youth and high profile, Manziel's window as an NFL quarterback, and at least as the Browns quarterback, might be closing.
All of this information, as well as all of the quotes used in this blog entry, from the following article (see link below):
ESPN's Chris Mortensen: Browns "90 percent" Done with Manziel By Joe Ginley, Apr 1, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment