NFL Thursday Night Football Preview: Johnny Manziel to Start in Place of Injured Josh McCown

The Cleveland Browns will have a major adjustment on Thursday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals when they start Johnny Manziel running the quarterback chores in place of the injured Josh McCown.

The Thursday night football game against the Bengals will be Manziel's second start of the young season.

In an earlier win against Tennessee where he also started, Manziel had two touchdown passes, and this opportunity to start, which actually is just the fourth time in his career, serves as a challenge for the 22nd overall pick of last year's NFL Draft.

Cleveland coach Mike Pettine released a statement after the announcement saying that they're giving their starting quarterback some time off because it became obvious he was hurting. He said, "On the short week, we realized that Josh just wasn't going to be able to get to the point where he could go". He justified Manziel's fourth career start by saying that the young quarterback has been working so hard to prepare himself and that the team is looking forward to his performance.

The first two starts in Manziel's career were both defeats, but he was still a rookie at that time. The first happened to be against the Bengals, too, where the Browns lost big time, 30-0.

General manager Ray Farmer has a lot of good words to say about his prized second-year player. "I think he has done a much better job this year of doing exactly what he has been asked to do, inside and around us," he told reporters.

The 22-year-old has played three games so far, completing 28 out of 50 passes and producing 393 yards. He also owns an interception and three touchdowns. With a current passer rating of 93.2, the former Texas A&M Aggies star will have some big shoes to fill as McCown continues to recover from the rib injury.