Tim Couch: Johnny Manziel should rest his elbow as much as possible

Former No. 1 overall pick Tim Couch is no stranger to elbow problems, and he thinks second-year quarterback Johnny Manziel should act with caution as he deals with his own elbow issues.

Manziel sat out much of Wednesday’s practice and is unlikely to play at Tampa Bay this Saturday and could very well be shut down for the rest of the preseason. Browns head coach Mike Pettine said that Manziel underwent an MRI which revealed no structural damage. The Browns have also signed another quarterback, as Josh McCown and Thad Lewis are the only two healthy right now.¹ Free agent quarterback Pat Devlin, who has never been more than a third-string quarterback, will start this process by heading to Berea on Thursday ((The team waived suspended lineman Ryan Seymour to make room)).

Couch suffered a series of arm and shoulder injuries throughout his career, elbow tendinitis among them. He said that he adjusted his throwing motion to compensate for the elbow, and thinks that that may have contributed to his shoulder problems.

“I know for me, it was pretty bad,” Couch said. “It was pretty severe. I missed a couple of games [in 2002] from elbow tendinitis during training camp. It was significant time off for me.

“I changed my release point a little, kind of trying to find different slots to the throw the ball into where it wasn’t affecting my elbow as much,” said Couch. “As a result of that, it kind of took a toll on my shoulder…I started changing where I was delivering the ball from because I was having so many issues with the elbow. I had two shoulder surgeries after that, and it all kind of started in my elbow.”

Manziel’s injury has been characterized as elbow soreness, though left tackle Joe Thomas put on his doctor’s coat and speculated that it could be tendinitis after Manziel left practice last Sunday.

“He’s made great progress and great strides and you’d like to see that continue and obviously an injury would set that back a little bit,” said Thomas. “But I imagine it’s probably just like a tendinitis-type thing, not a real injury-injury, like he’s going to be gone forever.”

Couch reportedly emphasized that he has no inside knowledge about Manziel’s current condition — “I can only address how it affected me” — and that he only described his experience as a means of comparison.

“I’m not suggesting [further injury] is going to happen with Johnny by any means,” said Couch, “But that’s kind of what happened to me and kind of the root of what started off my shoulder issues.”

In the meantime, Couch says there isn’t much for Johnny to do besides put the old hose on ice for a while.

“Really, the only way to heal it is to take time off and not use it…Once the season starts, I think it’ll calm down for him since he’s not going to be the starter.”

With a little tender loving care, Manziel could finish up his time in Cleveland in better shape than Couch did. Tim better hope so, or else Johnny could be taking his job at FOX Sports South as SEC football analyst.

1. Backup Connor Shaw is out with a thumb injury. [↩]