Johnny Manziel Starts for Browns in Must-Win Game

It might not technically be the NFL playoffs, but for the Cleveland Browns and new starting quarterback Johnny Manziel, it absolutely is. The Browns have a home game on Sunday afternoon against division rival Cincinnati, and this home game couldn’t come at a more perfect time or with more perfect circumstances for Cleveland to make one last playoffs push.

The Browns are currently 7-6, a very respectable record for a team that consistently is picking in the top 10 of the NFL Draft and without a true solution at the quarterback position. Brian Hoyer played well enough for Cleveland to get to this point, but the Browns have seen enough, and it’s now time for rookie Johnny Manziel with three games remaining.

This is the strategy Broncos fans would have loved to have seen back in 2011, when Kyle Orton could have played average football for three quarters and Tim Tebow would come in with his fourth quarter magic. The Browns are bringing on Manziel for some fourth quarter magic, a rally that will hopefully end in a playoff appearance in one of the NFL’s toughest divisions.

Cleveland absolutely has to win its final three games, starting with the first place Bengals this weekend and then going on the road to face the Carolina Panthers (who could, sadly, be without Cam Newton), and the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore, which is a near death sentence for any team at this time of year.

But, with limited sample size on Manziel, teams are going to figure out very quickly that this young playmaker and gunslinger is a completely different animal than Brian Hoyer. A move to Manziel doesn’t indicate that the Browns are throwing in the towel on this season, where every team in their division has a winning record and is in the thick of playoff positioning. It indicates to me that they believe Manziel can truly provide a boost, especially to the running game where his ability to scramble should open up the read-option for power runners like Isaiah Crowell and Terrance West.

The Browns boast one of the NFL’s best defenses at taking the football away from offenses, and that will be critical down the stretch as it will be expected that Manziel will make some mistakes. His game has never been without flaw, but with a playmaking defense like he has in Cleveland, they could atone for those mistakes or possibly create situations to give Manziel even more confidence than he already has in himself.

This must-win situation for Cleveland is unchartered territory for almost everyone on their roster. It will be phenomenal television watching how this team’s final three games unfold, but the Browns have the type of defense and running game when needed that they can make a late-season playoff push. The fact that Johnny Manziel will be leading the charge is simply a bonus at this point for football fans.