Johnny Manziel came to the Cleveland Browns' facility on Wednesday with concussion-like symptoms, and was evaluated for a concussion.
If Manziel has a concussion that would put his Week 17 status in doubt, and Manziel probably needs all the time he can get to make a positive impression.
It's no secret that the final few weeks of the season were an audition for Manziel for 2016. Make a big splash and perhaps the franchise could feel good about going into the offseason with him as the starting quarterback. If he failed, it would probably be clear it's time to move on. And Manziel's starts have been somewhere in between.
Manziel cost himself two weeks after the bye week partying incident (although the Browns screwed up extending the discipline to two weeks, because they really needed as much time to evaluate Manziel as possible), and then has been inconsistent in his subsequent starts. In his first game back, he played pretty well with 270 yards against the San Francisco 49ers. But the last two weeks he has 297 passing yards combined with one touchdown and two interceptions. Last week at the Kansas City Chiefs he completed 13-of-32 passes.
Manziel has had some good moments (and don't forget a promising 372-yard game against the Steelers before the bye week), but probably not enough to easily anoint him the 2016 starter, especially with the Browns in a good position to get a top-two pick in the 2016 draft. Manziel has gotten only eight starts in two years to prove himself, but he's partially to blame for that between his lackluster preparation and off-field antics that have not made the Browns happy.
In short, the Browns probably don't have a great idea what they have yet with Manziel. Or, at very least, they can't feel great committing to him for next season.
Manziel had a chance in Week 17 to finish strong against a poor Steelers pass defense he had success against earlier this season. He might have needed a better game than his 13 of 32 effort to impress the Browns going into the offseason. We'll see if he's healthy enough for one final push before the offseason starts.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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