New coach could mean Manziel gone

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By MARY KAY CABOT

The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

New Browns coach Hue Jackson will most likely want to move on from Johnny Manziel, a source told cleveland.com.

He probably won’t get much of an argument from the Browns.

The club gave Manziel the cold shoulder when he showed up the Monday after the season -- getaway day -- after going to Las Vegas for the weekend. That trip was three days after he was diagnosed with his concussion. He skipped out on his treatment the day before the season-ending loss 28-12 loss to the Steelers.

Manziel was reportedly spotted in a blond wig and fake mustache on Saturday night in Vegas. On Sunday, the Browns couldn’t reach him and no one knew where he was. Others close to Manziel couldn’t get a response from him that day.

That night, after Browns owner Jimmy Haslam fired Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer, he was non-committal on Manziel and said he’d leave it up to the new football men to decide how to proceed.

Since that time, LeBron James’ marketing firm, LRMR, has dropped Manziel as a client, and Nike is considering doing so, according to TMZ Sports.

Other key figures in Manziel’s life have declined to comment on the troubled quarterback, including his agent Erik Burkhardt, publicist Denise Michaels and his father Paul Manziel.

Manziel, who spent 73 days in an addiction-treatment center last off-season, had numerous transgressions during the season, including a roadway incident with his girlfriend in which he admitted drinking during the day. She said he hit her during the argument, but later retracted it, and he wasn’t charged with domestic violence.

He also lied to the coaches about his activities over the bye weekend and lost his starting job as a result.

Pettine acknowledged that Manziel’s problems were “deeper-rooted’’ than the team first thought when it drafted him.

Jackson watched Manziel struggle mightily in two starts against the Bengals. Manziel played horribly in his NFL starting debut last year against them, a 30-0 loss; and also faltered in a 31-10 loss to the Bengals this season.

Jackson -- a quarterback expert who has gotten the best out of Jason Campbell, Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton -- will have the No. 2 overall pick in the draft. That will give the Browns an opportunity to draft one of the premier passers this year, such as Memphis’ Paxton Lynch or Cal’s Jared Goff.

Jackson also made it clear to the Browns during his interview that he wants to move on from the 2014 No. 22 overall pick, according to Fox Sports and ESPN.

The Sacramento Bee also speculated Wednesday that Jackson might want to bring 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to Cleveland.

Jackson has admitted that when he was head coach of the Raiders in 2011 that the team considered moving up from the second round to the first to draft Kaepernick. He said he believed Kaepernick was the best quarterback in that draft, better than No. 1 overall pick Cam Newton.

“We wanted the kid in the worst way,” Jackson said of Kaepernick in a 2013 interview with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King.

If Kaepernick is on the 49ers roster after April 1, he’ll earn about $14 million for next season. Kaepernick, who was benched by the 49ers this season, has had three surgeries in the past two months, and most think he’s finished in San Francisco.

The Browns can either cut Manziel, or try to trade him after the league year opens in March.