Sunday, Aug. 23 (PM) – Now the Browns’ troublesome injury situation has finally spilled over into the quarterbacks.
Backup Johnny Manziel left today’s practice about 30 minutes early with soreness in his throwing elbow. He also apparently had some soreness in Saturday’s practice.
Will Manziel be able to play in Saturday night’s dress rehearsal preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see.
But this much we do know: This is incredibly disappointing and worrisome. Manziel was just starting to really come into his own, and Saturday’s game was going to be his final opportunity of the preseason in a worthwhile setting to wow the coaches. Now he might not get that chance.
We also know this: The Browns have been so besieged with injuries throughout training camp that it is becoming a major stumbling block to them moving forward and being able to get ready for the start of the season. And if you’re not moving forward, then you’re moving backward. There is no standing still in the NFL.
The Browns can ill afford to go into reverse. They were already looking up at the three other teams in the AFC North — the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers – and now that gap has widened a little without a regular-season game having been played.
Browns head coach Mike Pettine has not lost his cool in public since he took over last season, but if I were him, I’d be giving my training and medical staff an earful about what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and why. He is getting his legs cut out from under him with all these injuries.
Is it just bad luck? Or are the procedures of the trainers and doctors having an effect? Pettine has to find out – and now.
If the key players aren’t ready to go for the opening of the regular season – and it’s a real stretch to believe all of them will be ready, what with all the time they’ve missed – then the Browns’ hopes for a quick start because of a favorable schedule could well be dashed. And if that happens, then the meat of the schedule, which kicks in after the first three games, would likely take its toll and the season could spin out of control quickly.
Should that occur, then the heads of Pettine, and probably also General Manager Ray Farmer, could be on the chopping block by the end of the year.
Sure, this line of thinking might be stretching things a bit. Perhaps we’re inducing panic.
The Browns and their fans can only hope so.
But at the same time, the preseason, for all intents and purposes, will be over by midnight Saturday and the games that count in the standings will then be just around the corner.
So it’s time – it’s past time, really — for Pettine to get a handle on the injuries, especially the elbow soreness that keeps coming back with Manziel. No team, least of all one that has had seven straight losing seasons, can afford to lose quarterbacks. It’s the worst of all injuries because of the importance of that position.
The Browns thought they’d be finalizing things by this point of the preseason. The fact of the matter is that with the myriad of health issues they’ve been battling, nothing – nothing – is finalized on this team.
