Johnny Manziel not cut by Browns; team reportedly may want to recoup bonus money

Johnny Manziel was not cut on the first day of the new league year on Wednesday, but it’s not because the team wants to keep him.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday’s edition of Mike and Mike, the Browns may hold onto Manziel for a while with the expectation that he will face league discipline and they may be able to recoup some of his bonus money.

“I don’t think he’ll be on the Browns next year, but I think they’re going to play it out,” Schefter said, as transcribed by John Breech of Eye on Football. “If I were Cleveland, this is how I would be thinking, I would say this: that Johnny Manziel’s probably going to be disciplined by the NFL, he’s probably going to be suspended. If or when he’s suspended, the Browns could get back some bonus money, so you probably want to hold on to him for a little bit.”

NFL Media’s Aditi Kinkhabwala hears, however, that Manziel will be given his release before the week is over.

The Johnny Manziel era will indeed see its official end this week, I'm told. (Personal request: please be tomorrow.)

— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) March 9, 2016

Manziel is currently the subject of a domestic violence investigation, and it seems harder and harder to believe that he’ll get off unpunished by the league. It had been widely expected that the Browns would release Manziel as soon as the league year began and they had the cap room to absorb the hit.