The Sports Xchange

Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine said Friday that quarterback Josh McCown will be the team’s No. 1 passer throughout offseason workouts, minicamp and into training camp.

Pettine then went a step further, revealing McCown is the favorite to be the Browns starting quarterback this season over Johnny Manziel.

“If you’re taking the starters’ reps, I guess that would be fair to say,” Pettine said of McCown being the likely starter this season.

Back with the team after he was discharged from 10 weeks of rehab, Manziel is trying to put his rookie failures and past partying behind him.

Pettine stressed that Manziel’s job is to work on his recovery and on learning the new offense.

“To me it’s what I’ve said on Johnny so far that to me we want him essentially with horse blinders on,” Pettine said after the first practice of rookie camp. “Focus on his job, getting up every day, perfecting his craft, whatever it is, homework that the quarterbacks have or come out and working on his footwork, his releases, that he’s much more concerned about himself than really anything else.

“We’re not going to start talking competition. Josh, like I said will more than likely be the starter going into camp and in the foreseeable future I don’t see that changing. I’m not going to commit to a starter for game one, but you have to put somebody out there first and it’s going to be Josh.”

Manziel was drafted in the first round last year because of his unique playmaking ability, but in two starts as a rookie he appeared shell-shocked and ended 2014 on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.

“I just think we’re too close to him getting out,” Pettine said, referring to Manziel being released from the rehab facility on April 11. “I just think it’s too early to start expanding what we’re asking him to do and what we’re wanting him to get involved in. It’s baby steps here at this point. It’s a new system, he’s getting used to a new quarterback coach, a new coordinator and there’s plenty on his plate and there’s plenty of football between now and the start of the season for us to make an evaluation.”

Pettine and the coaches have been impressed lately with Manziel after the organization had become increasingly concerned about his partying and apparent denial last year.

“We all do,” Pettine said of Manziel’s rededication. “I’ve been in the offensive meetings and when he’s been called upon, he has the right answer and he gets it out quick. It seems to me, that he is dialed in and focused and all of that, but he’s done everything we’ve asked him so far.”

McCown had a 1-10 record as a starter last season in Tampa Bay before signing a three-year contract with the Browns that is worth $14 million, with $5.25 million due in 2015. According to reports, the deal guarantees $6.25 million and could be worth up to $20 million.

A third-round draft pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2002, McCown has played for six teams in 13 seasons. In 2014 with the Buccaneers, he completed 56.3 percent of his passes for 2,206 yards, 11 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

“We feel much more comfortable with Josh,” Pettine said. “There were a lot of circumstances and I’m not going to get into them as to what happened at Tampa, but we’re comfortable, and obviously we were comfortable because we brought him here and signed him that we’re going to see more of the Josh McCown from Chicago than we did from the Josh McCown in Tampa.”