Browns coach Mike Pettine acknowledged Sunday that Johnny Manziel has made "lot of improvement'' from the start of camp, but that he hasn't overtaken Brian Hoyer in the quarterback race yet and that there's no obvious frontrunner between the two.
"To me, if there was a clearcut favorite at this point, it would probably mean that one of them wasn't playing very well,'' Pettine said on a conference call. "And it's a good problem, having two guys that we think are both capable of being NFL starters.''
Pettine denied a report Sunday morning by ESPN's Bob Holtzman that Manziel has moved ahead of Hoyer, according to a team source. Holtzman was in Detroit for the Browns' 13-12 loss to the Lions, and has been covering the Browns regularly since Manziel was drafted.
"It's untrue,'' said Pettine.
Pettine added that he hasn't made a decision who will start preseason Week 2 vs. Washington on Monday Night Football, even though reports were out yesterday that it would be Manziel. He also backed off a little bit about making a call concerning who will start the regular season coming before preseason Week 3. Seems like there's a long way to go before we get "The Decision."
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