One year removed from being one of the most talked about prospects entering the NFL in the 2014 draft, Johnny Manziel doesn’t have much backing around the league as he prepares for his second season. But for his own sake, and the sake of the Browns franchise, he needs some support in Cleveland right now.

The Browns need to make the call to elevate Manziel to starting quarterback and keep him there for the foreseeable future. Not as some knee-jerk reaction to Manziel’s performance in the Browns’ preseason loss to the Bills on Thursday night, a performance that was average at best. Not even as a reaction to the much worse night had by Cleveland’s current starter Josh McCown. To do anything based purely on either would be shortsighted. This move would be aimed at both the present and future of the Browns franchise, and finding out as soon as possible if Johnny Manziel has any part in either.

After Cleveland’s preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, Browns head coach Mike Pettine made it clear that his team is set on their depth chart at quarterback. That kind of decisiveness this early in the preseason is usually a good thing. If a team thinks they have two quarterbacks competing for a spot, the truth is likely they don’t have any quarterbacks who should be deemed worthy of starting.

The problem is, Pettine and his staff have the wrong guy at the top. 

The Browns regime has chosen to the team’s wagon to veteran free agent signing Josh McCown and Pettine remained adamant following Thursday’s game, that McCown is his team’s starter, dismissing any questions about competition at the position.

“(He’s) firmly the one,” Pettine told reporters regarding McCown. “I’m not going to sit here and talk about trying to stir up a quarterback controversy.”

Pettine shouldn’t have to deal with a quarterback controversy, because the decision is right there in front of him. But it’s not McCown, who the team signed to a fairly reasonable three-year contract this offseason. The 36-year-old, 12-year veteran is an able-bodied fill in, but he’s not nearly the answer for the franchise in the short or long term. He never has been for any team. He’s just a guy. And the longer that guy stays Cleveland’s starting quarterback, it just further pushes back the day when the Browns can decide what their future holds at the position and what their return on investment will be.

Because while they have very little invested in McCown, the Browns have as much invested in Manziel as they have in any quarterback since Tim Couch. To trade up from 26th to 22nd overall and nab him in the 2014 NFL Draft, they had to send Philadelphia a third round pick, so they have essentially two high draft picks invested in Manziel. Then, as the 22nd pick in the draft, he got a contract of more than $8 million over the course of a four-year deal.

But the biggest investment the Browns have made in Manziel over the last 15 months is time spent. They’ve dedicated resources both on and off the field to trying to help the young quarterback acclimate to the NFL and develop as a player, while also helping him get through his problems as a person.

Manziel was a trainwreck as a rookie. There’s no denying that. Over the course of the 2014 season he showed very little commitment to the craft and even less responsibility for his actions.

This offseason, the Browns seemingly gave Manziel an ultimatum to make changes to his lifestyle or be left behind and since then he’s shown the type of responsibility he lacked for most of 2014. He started taking accountability for himself by checking into a drug and alcohol treatment facility, where he reportedly stayed for months prior before being discharged in April.

“I owe private apologies to a lot of people that I disappointed but a very public one to the Browns organization and the fans that I let down,” Manziel said in a statement on April 17. “I take full responsibility for my actions and it’s my intention to work very hard to regain everyone’s trust and respect. I understand that will take time and will only happen through what I do and not what I say.”

Since then, Manziel has backed those words with actions. Gone are the social media posts that frequently popped up on his feed and those of others last year, with scenes of a debaucherous Johnny soaking in the celebrity at parties. In fact, Manziel’s lone Instagram post since early February is a picture in memory of Texas A&M legend John David Crow, who died in June.

Gone too is the famed “money sign” celebration. Manziel has been responsible for two Browns touchdowns this preseason, one on the ground and one through the air, and both have featured tame celebrations more in line with his peers at the quarterback position around the league.

In addition to cleaning up his act, Manziel has been putting in work on the field.

Despite being relegated to second string by a newcomer who went 1-10 as a starter last season and struggled to hold down the starting job with the worst team in the league, Manziel has been working hard with Cleveland’s second unit.

“His mentality is night and day from last year. He’s focused in the meetings,” Browns left guard Joel Bitonio told ESPN earlier this month. “He wants to be the best and I think that’s the right mentality to have and he really improved that. He’s taking notes in meetings; he’s on top of things. There’s definitely an improvement and I think these preseason games are going to be valuable for him to get back on the field and kind of get his bearings back.”

So far in those preseason games, Manziel has shown flashes of the potential that made him a star prospect. His 12-yard touchdown run in the first preseason game against the Redskins was classic Johnny Football. He made a quick decision based on a short drop back that his best play was to run, and took off through a wide open hole in the line, making a one-cut sprint to the end zone for a touchdown.

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His touchdown pass on Thursday against Buffalo was a sign of a more developed Manziel. He executed a good play action fake, used his athleticism to quickly step up out of a collapsing pocket and avoid pressure, then delivered a strike to a waiting Shane Wynn in the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown to put Cleveland ahead. That score capped an 11-play, 96-yard Browns drive that also included a great 37-yard throw from Manziel to receiver Darius Jennings on a bootleg play. His playmaking on that long drive drew praise from the veteran McCown, who has become something of a mentor.

“It was cool, the long throw to Jennings, and he kind of opened up. It was cool to see that, especially going to the left for that to take place,” McCown said. “Then to find Wynn in the end zone there was awesome. That was a really good play by Johnny. Everything – the read, to step up, the play from the pocket – it was everything as a young quarterback you want to see him grow into. I am really, really proud of the way he played. It was awesome.”

Of course, it hasn’t been all good for Manziel. He’s still working on adjusting his protections and Rex Ryan’s Bills gave him fits with their exotic blitzes. He also struggled late in Thursday’s game, first on a quick three-and-out with Cleveland still leading. After consecutive run plays, he had a chance to convert third-and-long but made a poor throw when a good one would have extended the drive and helped the Browns run more time off the clock. Instead, Buffalo got the ball back with ample time remaining and drove down for the go-ahead score.

Then, when Cleveland got the ball back with a minute and a half to go, Manziel had some issues running the two-minute drill, and made a few poor decisions to force the ball into traffic. He had similar problems in the first preseason game against Washington, after the Browns got the ball back with 35 seconds left in the first half. His final five plays in that game were a disaster, featuring at least two plays where he held the ball too long, a drop back into no man’s land for a sack, a poor snap he had to fall on, and a throw into double coverage that was dropped.

But while he’s made his share of mistakes, Manziel has clearly been hampered by poor play from his team, particularly late in the game against Buffalo on Thursday, when he was out there with second and third stringers. One great play he made to scramble and find an open receiver for a first down was nullified by an ineligible man downfield penalty, and two plays later his attempt at a fourth down conversion was dropped despite a good throw.

“I thought it got a little bit ragged at the end,” Pettine told Cleveland.com in a conference call on Friday. “That might have been more of a function of the circumstances of the game and who he was out there with. Overall I think he made strides, was still calm in the pocket. He got flushed probably more than we wanted him to get flushed, but he still made some plays on the move with his feet. Those were some encouraging things to see.”

For his part, despite some of the letdowns playing with reserves, Manziel has continued to say and do all the right things before, during and after games.

“I want to have these guys go into the film tomorrow and turn on the tape and say, ‘This guy’s really doing things right and this guy’s really fighting hard to pick things up and make some plays. That’s what I’m trying to do,” Manziel told Cleveland.com on Thursday. “I’m trying to make an impression and leave a little bit of a lasting memory coming off these games. I wish we would have finished that out the right way, but still despite that, good things were done.”

Although he made some thrilling plays early and some poor ones late in both his preseason appearances thus far, the best evidence of Manziel’s development have been the things in between. He seems to have a better command of the huddle and a better feel for the offense under new coordinator John DeFilippo. His comfort level under center is clearly increased. He’s also been making better checks at the line. On one particular play in Thursday’s game, he read a Bills blitz perfectly at the line and audibled into a run play that got the Browns a big gain and first down.

In the pocket, he’s been more patient. He still gets happy feet from time to time, but his first read hasn’t been to take off running with the ball at the initial sign of pressure. Instead, he’s used his feet to create time and allow his receivers to get open. It’s there he’s again been let down by the lack of talent around him due to playing with mostly second and third teamers.

On the second to last play of the game Thursday, Manziel did a great job to evade pressure and rolled out of the pocket seemingly creating an opportunity for the team to pick up a much-needed first down in the two-minute drill. However, while Manziel was running around, his receivers remained mostly stationary downfield, failing to make the extra moves to come back and get open and doing their quarterback no favors. As a result, Manziel had to take off running and picked up 15 of 20 yards on 3rd & 20. One play later, on 4th & 5, Manziel again scrambled outside the pocket and delivered a nice throw on the run, but it clanked off the hands of 2015 fourth round pick Vince Mayle, a third stringer, and fell incomplete.

Perhaps there was some learning to be done by Manziel in terms of overcoming the obstacles of playing with less talented teammates and trying to get more out of them. It has definitely been a learning experience for him. But that can only go on for so long. Earlier this offseason, after a particularly bad day for Manziel in minicamp, DeFilippo spoke to the trouble with trying to analyze Manziel when he’s surrounded by lower level players.

“I’m pleased with Johnny,” DeFilippo told Cleveland.com on the final day of minicamp. “The lack of continuity in that second huddle has hurt him a little bit, it really has. From the offensive line, guys moving around, the receivers, you know, two young receivers that are in there with him. So some of the things you see on the field aren’t all on Johnny, okay? It’s never all on one guy.”

Some credit for Manziel’s development is due to the 37-year-old DeFilippo, and the system he’s implemented with the Browns since taking over the position in January. DeFilippo came to Cleveland from Oakland, where he served as Raiders quarterback coach the last three seasons working with a slew of young quarterbacks — most recently Derek Carr, who emerged as a solid starter as rookie last season. The Browns are hoping he can have a similar impact on Manziel, and the coordinator is pleased with what he’s seen from the young quarterback thus far.

“I think he’s improved on his pocket awareness….you see him reset his feet and getting back to second and third progressions, which is something I didn’t see much last season or when he was in college,”DeFilippo said. “The other thing that Johnny has done a much better job of is his huddle management. He’s gone in there and he’s been like a veteran spitting it out. We’ve had very, very few issues pre-snap with him in terms of delay of games, forgetting motions, not sending a shift we wanted, motion landmarks.”

But there’s only so far Manziel can go and so much that can be analyzed about his progress and development through working with second and third team offensive linemen and receivers. That’s why the time is now for the Browns to make the move and install Manziel as QB1. There’s still the most important game of the preseason ahead next week against Tampa Bay, and Cleveland should use that opportunity to get Manziel the vast majority of reps behind the first team offensive line, the second best pass blocking unit in the league last year according to Pro Football Focus. He is also due some game reps with the team’s best wide receivers, particularly Brian Hartline, a hard working wideout who could be a huge weapon getting open while Manziel buys extra time with his feet on rollouts and scrambles.

Pettine acknowledged that Manziel could see “some time” with the first team in Tampa, but the plan remains for McCown to start and get the bulk of the reps. The Browns coach did leave some wiggle room to change his mind over the next week and has remained non-committal about who the team’s starter will be when Cleveland opens the regular season on September 13 in New York against the Jets.

“I’m not into guaranteeing or announcing a game week starter. That, to me, comes down the road. We’re just looking to have a good week of preparation and go out and play Tampa and get better,” Pettine said Friday. “We feel good about where Johnny is as the No. 2 and we feel good about where Josh is with the No. 1…. We have a pretty good plan we feel for Johnny’s development and I think we’re on schedule with it. He’s shown great improvement from the day he set foot back in the building and to me, we get very individualized during the preseason. We just want him to go out and do his job for one play and hit the reset button, do it again.”

Manziel has more than proven he can hit the reset button since the team mandated he get his act together at the outset of the 2015 offseason. Now it’s time they do the same with their quarterback plan and install Manziel as the starter, not just for his sake, but for the sake of the franchise, to find out sooner than later if their future is better with or better off without Johnny Football.