“I’m not going to go beyond that”. “Austin’s the guy for this week”.
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Davis will become the 24th quarterback to start for the Browns since 1999.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown’s return to the starting role didn’t even make it to the end of Monday night’s heartbreaking 33-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens before it came to a end.
The Ravens had looked set to suffer an agonizing late defeat as Cleveland kicker Travis Coons stepped up for what would have been a game-winning 51-yard field goal with the last play of regulation. “I just felt given the circumstances with where he had placed him and what we had done as a result, Austin was above him and played well and deserves this opportunity”.
Pettine demoted him to third string, saying the 22-year-old had violated the team’s trust.
Maybe this decision to go with Davis over Manziel for Sunday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals is further punishment for Manziel, and maybe Pettine will pick his quarterback on a week-to-week basis.
Well, what’s best for the organization is to find out if Manziel is worth all this trouble.
Prior to Week 12, Manziel had been named the season starter, but social media pictures of the quarterback partying in Texas ended that idea. He leads the National Football League with a 129.5 rating on third down.
Davis started eight games for the Rams past year, but this one smacks of being far more about Manziel and his future in Cleveland than anything Davis has done on his own. Within a couple of days, though, Pettine and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said they could envision Manziel playing again for the Browns this season.
The 2014 season served as Davis’ first live-game regular-season action since his days at Southern Mississippi (2008-2011), where in four years, he completed 933 of his 1,527 attempts for 10,892 yards and 83 touchdowns against 27 interceptions.
Pettine also said that hasn’t seen any serious dissatisfaction from Manziel that might indicate he would want out of Cleveland after the season.
“As far as the quarterback situation is concerned, I’m not ready to announce that”, Pettine said. “I can’t think of too many game-ending scenarios that would make you feel worse at the end than that.”…
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“He’s young and hasn’t had a ton of starts and what he’s shown us on the practice field and the little bit that he got in the game has all been encouraging”, he said.
