Browns to be cautious with Johnny Manziel rest of preseason

BEREA, Ohio -- Johnny Manziel is done for the preseason.

Manziel's sore right elbow will keep him from playing Saturday night against Tampa Bay, and Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine said given the fast turnaround for the finale Thursday against Chicago, he can see the quarterback missing that game as well.

Pettine said the plan had been for Manziel to play against Tampa Bay's starters in the second quarter, and for a half against Chicago.

"You can't get those reps back," Pettine said. "He'll lose out on all that real-game experience, but we're very pleased with where he is currently. If we truly felt like, 'Hey, he needs to get out there and get these reps,' then this is something we could have worked through.

"But we just felt like heading into the season, it's a long year, let's go ahead and shut him down and rest and make sure it's 100 percent once we head to New York [for the opener]."

Pettine said the idea was to give Manziel "meaningful reps" in the final two preseason games, but the team would rather be cautious with his arm than force the issue. At some point after the Bucs game, the team will make a determination about when Manziel will throw. Pettine said that decision is up to the team doctors and trainers.

"At what point does he pick a ball up and start throwing it again," Pettine said. "And how many times does he do it and how do we test to make sure we're not overdoing it, that we don't rush him back from it."

Pettine said Manziel did not fight the team on the decision to rest his arm.

"I think he's upset that he's not out there," Pettine said. "He's upset it got to this point."