By NATE ULRICH
By NATE ULRICH
Tribune News Service
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After rookie Johnny Manziel was knocked out of the Browns’ 17-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers with an injured left hamstring late in the first half Sunday, he hobbled onto a platform for a news conference and attempted to sell himself as the franchise’s quarterback of the future.
The Browns (7-8), who have lost four consecutive games and 11 in a row in December, bought into the idea when they traded up four spots and drafted Manziel 22nd overall in May. But his two unimpressive NFL starts are cause for concern, albeit it a small sample size.
Manziel’s status for the season finale next week against the Baltimore Ravens (9-6) is unclear, but he sounded as if he doesn’t expect to play. If he’s sidelined, the Browns would close the season with Brian Hoyer as their starting quarterback.
Asked simply if he felt more comfortable this week, Manziel made a pitch in a long-winded answer akin to a season review.
“This was a learning process for me, and regardless of what happens moving forward into this last game of the season, this has really been a great thing for me, a very positive thing for me to get in here with these guys,” Manziel said. “And this week, going through the walk through and going through everything, I was a lot sharper, and a lot more on top of this stuff, and I think these guys see me and see that I’m in the building really putting in a lot of work and I want to be the guy. That’s what I want to be for this organization.
“If anything, this has motivated me more heading into this offseason. We had a better team than we have had here in years past, and we need to capitalize on these guys that we have coming back next year and the talent that we do have on this roster that our coaching staff and our management has put on this team. So if anything, it makes me more hungry to work in this offseason and get with these guys and stay on top of this stuff and come back next year and come out and try to have some success early in the season and sustain that through a season.”
Manziel said his hamstring tightened when his “foot kind of slipped about three, four, five inches” and he fell down after throwing a pass intended for Josh Gordon with 13:29 left in the second quarter.
Later in the second quarter, Manziel sprinted left during a designed running play, lowered his head and absorbed a blow to the helmet from free safety Colin Jones along the Browns’ sideline on first-and-10 from the Browns’ 20. Middle linebacker Luke Kuechly fell on the back of Manziel’s legs as the former Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M hit the ground for a 1-yard loss with 1:49 left before halftime.
“Shoulders feels good, head feels good, just took a hit,” Manziel said. “I was ready to hop back in, ready to go and just took off and felt like I was cramping, and as I kept walking more and more, it just felt like something that I hadn’t experienced before and figured I needed to get checked out.”
Manziel never returned to the game. A week after being shut out by the Cincinnati Bengals 30-0 in a dismal starting debut, he finished 3-of-8 passing for 32 yards, ran for 3 yards on two carries and posted a rating of 50.0.
After walking to the locker room with a towel draped over his head late in the second quarter and being examined with the Browns trailing 10-3 at halftime, Manziel watched the second half from the sideline.
Browns coach Mike Pettine said he didn’t know the severity of Manziel’s injury.
Manziel said he was “100 percent ready” to return if needed.
“Brian was out there. Brian was in a rhythm, so we stuck with that,” Manziel said. “But I wasn’t 100 percent, so I wouldn’t have expected to be out there unless I absolutely had to be.”
If Manziel doesn’t play against the Ravens, he’ll finish his rookie season 18-of-35 passing (51.4 percent) for 175 yards and zero touchdowns with two interceptions to go along with nine carries for 29 yards (3.2 average) and a touchdown. His final passer rating would be 41.9.
Manziel, 22, has led just one scoring drive as a starter. Garrett Hartley capped it with a 43-yard field goal with 13:25 left in the second quarter.
Asked about Manziel’s performance Sunday, Pettine said, “I just know as an offense we weren’t very productive.”
Now the Browns are in danger of ending Pettine’s first season on the job with five losses in a row and six defeats in seven games.
“It’s been a bad slide, and you can’t put a word on what it is,” Hoyer said. “We just have to find a way to finish this last week. This means everything to us.
“To think that someone would tank or be ready to get out of there, that would be a disappointing thing. I don’t think we have guys like that.”