Start Johnny Manziel Now.

In this Article by Aaron Ferguson, the writer makes a good case for letting Johnny take the reigns next week.

Unlike Aaron, I don't consider McCown's performance vs the Rams "dreadful", and can't cite it as a justification for this move.

In fact, Josh McCown, despite the mistakes he made against the Broncos, has surprised me with his latter-day renaissance.  He's a cut above Foles and Bradford.  Nor was Johnny's brief stint against a prevent defense all that impressive.

But they've lost five games now.  There is little chance for a playoff berth this season.  Just in the AFC North, the Steelers are about to get Big Ben back, and have pulled ahead behind guys named Joe.

Some coaches make otherwise questionable quarterback moves just for a "spark".

Mike Pettine, I fear, will stick with Josh until the math conclusively rules the playoffs out before he'll consider it.

After all, in reality McCown has been pretty good overall, and Manziel hasn't done better-the two deep passes notwithstanding.

But we've all seen his dramatic improvements.  A few weeks ago, I was with Mike: Keep Josh in there.  Give Johnny more time to master the offense.  He's still almost a rookie.  He will get fooled and make mistakes.  Letting him watch and learn awhile longer will only help.

But now the Browns have nine games left to play in 2015.  Give Johnny those nine games to show us if the Browns really do still need a franchise quarterback, and to prepare him for a serious playoff run next season.

Rich Gannon, Pat Kirwan and others say that a quarterback typically needs 26 or so starts before he is truly comfortable.  That's before the coaches really know what he'll become in time.

One exception was Aaron Rodgers, who spent years on the bench.  Another was RG3, who now appears to have been the product of a system.  Luck and Wilson both had a ton of college starts in pro-style systems.  So don't argue.

The Browns can't get Johnny 24 starts by next season, but can, at least, get a fairly good idea of both his current development and his upside.

Beyond winning one or two more games...or fewer games, Mike...what purpose will be served by letting Gramps get beat up more?

And yes, they might win games with Johnny that they wouldn't with Josh.  Flip says he has some things prepared uniquely for Johnny.  This wouldn't be quite the same offense.

It no longer needs to be as simple as the one the Redskins initially used to help RG3 out as a rookie, but could certainly use some half-field reads off rollouts and such.

Manziel can do things McCown can't.  Handled carefully, letting Manziel take over now is far from an admission of failure or a forfeit.

Johnny Manziel has magic.  It hasn't disappeared.  It's built into him, and shines brightest when things look dimmest.

He will learn to read things better and all that.  But on the bottom line, he has this...magic.

Give him the ball, Mike.  You might be pleasantly surprised.