Manziel says elbow injury not serious

First, Browns head coach Mike Pettine said quarterback Johnny Manziel's elbow injury wouldn't keep him out of the team's rotation. The next day, he said Manziel would be shut down for the preseason.

Manziel hasn't thrown a football in more than a week, though on Tuesday he said publicly that the injury in question is only tendinitis and shouldn't keep him from action should he be called on.

"I'm not worried about it at all," he said, via Tom Reed of the Plain Dealer (Cleveland).

But it will keep him from the remainder of the Browns' exhibition campaign after Pettine said he would have taken most of the snaps with the first-team offense in their remaining games, last Saturday's game in Tampa, and their finale in Chicago on Sept. 3.

Manziel said this issue with his elbow has been around since his days at Texas A&M in 2011, but that it had always improved as training camp ended, as passers are called on to make far fewer pass attempts during the regular season. He added that his has sought a number of medical opinions for his elbow, including that of Dr. James Andrews, but that he has not been advised to have surgery.

That elbow may come into play if the Browns' master plan for Josh McCown doesn't come to pass. Should Cleveland find themselves under .500 in the first quarter of the season, Pettine will be immersed in calls to start Manziel, giving him the chance to re-establish his career after a poor showing over seven quarters in 2014.