With Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel locked in a battle of preseason futility, coach Mike Pettine said Tuesday that no announcement on the Cleveland Browns' starting quarterback decision will be forthcoming.
"In ideal circumstances, we could have named one," Pettine said on a conference call. "If we do have to wait until after the next game, so be it."
The Browns' coaching staff will meet later in the day to discuss the situation. If a consensus is somehow reached during that pow wow, Pettine conceded that's it still eminently possible a starter will be announced this week.
"We want to get the decision right," Pettine said, "That might be the risk/reward of it -- if we want to make sure that we are diligent with it and do the right thing. I don't want to rush it and make it for the sake of making it and then you're risking the chemistry and cohesion if you have the wrong guy there."
After reviewing the game film, Pettine insists the quarterback play was not as bad as it might have seemed in person or on television. The Browns are not ready to consider other options such as Rex Grossman and Connor Shaw.
"It is tough to evaluate (Hoyer and Manziel)," Pettine explained, "when the performance around them is not what it needs to be."
The first-team quarterbacks haven't gotten much help from the offensive line or the receiver corps, which displayed a major bout of the dropsies on Monday night.
As bleak as it looks for the offense in mid-August, Pettine stressed that his team is "not anywhere near hitting a panic button here."
The Browns might want to keep that button handy in case both starting quarterback options flounder again in Saturday'sregular-season audition versus the Rams.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" recaps all of the action from the second week of the preseason.
