No reason for any preamble as the fated hour of the postseason draws near so let’s get to it.
Johnny Manziel is going to get his shot in Cleveland
With four games to go the Cleveland Browns have decided to stop screwing around with Johnny Manziel in spite of the recent reappearance of Johnny Football at a party in Texas a few weeks ago. The Browns are in a three-team race for the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft and of those three teams (the Tennessee Titans and San Diego Chargers being the other two), they’re the only team that will be looking for a quarterback so it makes no difference for them if they pick one, two or three.
But Manziel will get the chance to make his case, either to the Browns or to another team that might want to trade for him in the offseason.
Mike Pettine, who needs to be worried about his own job security, said that Manziel’s off-the-field behavior could cost him his job again.
“I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘Look at the degree of discipline,'” Pettine said. “It’s hard to say we have a zero-tolerance policy. If something were to occur, I imagine the repercussions would be harsh.”
Harsher than playing for the Browns and Pettine? That could violate the Geneva Conventions.
The Browns have the San Francisco 49ers coming up this week, then a murderer’s row of games to finish out the season, starting with Seattle Seahawks in Seattle, then at the Kansas City Chiefs and finally ending the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those are must-win games for all those teams (other than the 49ers) so anything Manziel can do positive should reflect well on him.
That being said, the likeliest scenario are that the Browns are already shopping Manziel to a potential trade partner as they prepare to welcome Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch into their world.
As far as potential trade partners for Manziel, at the top of the list is the Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones nearly pulled the trigger drafting Manziel back in 2014 before taking guard Zack Martin. Obviously, the Cowboys made the smart move but Jones still likes to talk about Manziel and his original desire to have him on the team.
“We know the off-the-field issues,” Jones told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “But on our board, one of our top five or six picks dropped down to us, it was at the quarterback position. And I absolutely was a vote of one in that room to basically go there.”
Manziel would obviously sit with the Cowboys for a few years under Tony Romo and there are certainly worse places he could land. Manziel needs to come in as a back up under an entrenched starter and professional leader. The potential is there, but he’s obviously not ready to be handed the keys just yet.
If the playoffs started today…
We got our first real, league-wide shake up this week. The Denver Broncos are now the No. 1 seed in the AFC and the Cincinnati Bengals are the two seed. The New England Patriots have fallen down to No. 3 and the Indianapolis Colts are No. 4. Your two wild cards are the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets, of all teams, with the Pittsburgh Steelers right there with the same 7-5 record. The Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders are all still in the mix, especially the Texans who are currently tied with the Colts at 6-6 atop the AFC South.
In the NFC the Carolina Panthers have practically clinched everything already. They’re the current No. 1 seed and have already won the NFC South and even if they lost every single one of their games here on out, could be no worse than the No. 2 seed. They won’t lose out. In fact, they may not lose, period.
The Arizona Cardinals are the current No. 2 seed and the Green Bay Packers are back as the No. 3. The Washington Redskins (still!) are the No. 4 and in a three-way tie atop the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants at 5-7. Your wild card teams are the Minnesota Vikings, who’ve all but locked up at least that and the Seattle Seahawks. There are plenty of teams still mathematically in the race, but realistically, the only teams that can catch Seattle for that second wild card berth are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Atlanta Falcons, who’ve lost five straight.
