From the sounds of things, Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel may no longer be the apple of team owner Jimmy Haslam's eye.
Haslam, when speaking to The Cleveland Chronicle, said that his team still needs to answer the biggest question facing every organization in the NFL - do we have a franchise quarterback and, if not, how do we go about getting one?
"We've got to get a quarterback and got to get it fixed," Haslam said Thursday night at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards. "What I would say to our fans is, we're going to continue to work really hard to find that quarterback who can make us a championship team."
While Haslam wouldn't rule out Manziel as "the guy," those comments also don't sound like someone truly enamored with Manziel or realistically expects him to become the franchise quarterback they obviously once thought he could be when they selected him in the first-round of the NFL Draft.
In fact, Haslam agreed with Browns coach Mike Pettine's assertion that the picture at quarterback for the Browns was "muddy."
"That's an accurate way to say it, so to describe it any different would be not the right thing to do," Haslam said. "I think every option is open on the table for us in terms of who's going to play next year."
Manziel, in two starts this season, led a field-goal drive and threw two interceptions. On the year, he completed 18 passes on 35 attempts for 175 and a 42.0 rating.
He also ran nine times for 29 yards and a touchdown.
But for Manziel, his atrocious play on the field was matched only by the continually questionable decisions he made off of it.
In short, he didn't look like an NFL quarterback in any capacity.
"Johnny has to show on and off the field he can be a professional," Haslam said. "He knows that. Everybody in the organization has told him that. It'll be up to Flip (new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo) and Pett to decide whether he can be the kind of quarterback we need him to be. He knows what we expect of him on and off the field and it's up to him to prove he can do that."
