NFL: Browns coach leaning toward change at quarterback

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BEREA, Ohio — The switch at starting quarterback appears inevitable this week.

BEREA, Ohio — The switch at starting quarterback appears inevitable this week.

It may be time for the Cleveland Browns to turn the offense over to Johnny Football.

After starter Brian Hoyer played poorly again in Sunday’s loss to Indianapolis, Browns coach Mike Pettine said Monday that he hasn’t decided to make a change but “it would be natural to be leaning the other way.” That would mean going with Manziel, who came off the bench two weeks ago in the fourth quarter at Buffalo and led the Browns to a touchdown.

Pettine was unclear on if he had already decided to make the change. He said he wants to talk with his coaching staff and both quarterbacks before announcing who will start on Sunday against Cincinnati.

Pettine said the offensive problems in Sunday’s game were deeper than the quarterback, but he called the passing attack “sub-standard.” Pettine cited dropped passes, receivers running wrong routes and execution as factors but that Hoyer has to play better.

“We’re in a results business,” he said. “We’ve lost two in a row. We know what the numbers were in the pass game, and for us to be successful, we have to improve.”

Chiefs’ Eric Berry diagnosed with cancer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs safety Eric Berry has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and will begin chemotherapy for what doctors called a “very treatable and potentially curable” form of cancer.

Hodgkin’s disease is a form of lymphoma originating in white blood cells.

Berry had been undergoing tests at Emory University in Atlanta since an MRI exam nearly two weeks ago showed a mass on the right side of his chest that was suspected to be lymphoma.

Berry said in a statement that he will “embrace this process and attack it the same way I do everything else in life. God has more than prepared me for it.”