Mike Pettine still hasn't decided whether Johnny Manziel or Brian Hoyer will get the starting nod for Monday night's second preseason game against the Washington Redskins. But both quarterbacks will get first-team reps.
The Cleveland Browns coach told reporters Tuesday that his staff will make a decision on the starter on Thursday -- the team's off day -- but noted that Manziel will get first-team reps, even if he doesn't start. Pettine added that it's "overrated" who trots out first, per The Plain Dealer.
Manziel played with the backups in the first preseason game, completing 7 of 11 passes for 63 yards and gaining 27 yards on the ground. However, Manziel didn't do anything to clearly leapfrog Hoyer either. Around The League's Gregg Rosenthal tabbed Hoyer as winning the competition "by a hair" at this point.
The buzz surrounding Johnny Football has been palpable this preseason.
According to the NFL, an average of 2.82 million people watched the Detroit Lions-Cleveland Browns game last Saturday, ranking it as the highest-rated and most-watched game in the 11 seasons of televising preseason games on NFL Network -- 36 percent more than the previous record .
You can be sure all those people weren't tuning in to catch a glimpse of Detroit's Kellen Moore.
*The latest Around The League Podcast highlights the winners and losers from the first week of preseason action. *
