AURORA, Ohio ---Browns cornerback Joe Haden, who's close to Johnny Manziel and hangs out with him, said it's his buddy's intention to start the season regardless of who has the edge right now.



"Oh for sure,'' Haden said at the Browns Foundation golf outing at Barrington Golf Club. "He's a competitor. I think it's all about competition. We have Josh McCown. We have Johnny. We have (Connor) Shaw. All those guys. Just all of them feel like they can win the starting job.

"Competition brings out the best in you and I think that's good for Johnny and all the other quarterbacks who are going to compete against each other.''

Haden, who has Manziel over to his house and also plays basketball with him, said Manziel realizes now more than ever the opportunity at hand.

"He said he took a lot of things for granted,'' said Haden. "Just being able to go back there and realize that he is in the NFL. He's living his dream. He's a quarterback in the National Football League and what that entitles him. I think he understands that and I'm very happy for him.''

Four weeks into the offseason program, Haden has seen Manziel maintaining his feverish post-rehab work ethic. Manziel attended the golf outing and shook hands with reporters, but declined to be interviewed.

"I can see just him trying to be involved a little bit more in the offense,'' he said. "(I see) him studying a lot more, him being in the facility a lot more. Him being involved with his coaches, just staying after and getting that one-on-one and being able to understand what he has to do. Just a different mentality. I'm really excited about it.''

Browns coach Mike Pettine declared last week that Josh McCown is the favorite to start the season and that he doesn't want an open competition in camp, but Haden isn't the only one not counting out Manziel. Browns general manager Ray Farmer, who loves competition, is eager to see how it all plays out.

"Again, that's not my call. That's Pett's call,'' he said at the Golf outing of Manziel's shot to start the opener. "But again, I watch the film, I evaluate guys and at the end of the day, the best man always wins in my mind. Whoever plays the best is who should play.''

Farmer, who's all about bringing in guys to make you sweat a little harder, said at the NFL annual meeting that shutting Manziel down to let him focus on his recovery was not the right strategy.

"That'd be the equivalent of me telling you that I could predict the future and tell you that he's not prepared,'' Farmer said. "If he is prepared and he demonstrates the things that he needs to demonstrate, then yeah he should get every opportunity to be the guy. I think that's what it comes down to.''

Farmer disagreed with the notion that the Browns are merely trying to take the pressure off Manziel since he's just over a month out of rehab.

"My conversations with him have been pretty deliberate, like 'you've got to come and compete,''' said Farmer. "This is still the National Football League. There's no rest for the weary. We get it. We're supportive of him and his personal endeavors and he's got to come out and perform and demonstrate that he's worthy of being on the 53-man roster.''

He's been encouraged by everything he's seen so far from the post-rehab Manziel, including his move to a nice, quiet golf community in a west side suburb.

"The positives are the positives,'' he said. "At the end of the day I feel good that he is a young man that's doing the best he can with the circumstances he has. He wants to give himself the best opportunity. Whatever he thinks those adjustments need to be, those are things that he's going to do.''

Football-wise, he's still seeing some of the same flashes of excellence that he saw on film, the ones that prompted him to trade up from No. 26 to No. 22 to draft Manziel last year.

"I would contend that I see a guy that's doing everything he can to put himself in the best situation possible, so like I said, I think he's throwing the ball well,'' he said. "Again, I'm not an offensive coordinator. I can't tell you if he made the right read on the dig or he should've thrown it to the wheel route, but even in those situations, you watch what the guy's doing. Right now it's not competitive. There's not defenders running in there. It's all air. (But) when you see the guy throw the ball, he can throw it. It looks good right now, so we'll see.''

Meanwhile, the players are bonding with McCown, who's proving to be one of the guys.

"He's a real cool dude, man,'' said Haden. "On one of our days in the winter he went to Baldwin Wallace with us and played basketball. Really cool guy. I know he coached his kids in AAU. He just seems like a pro's pro and I really like him. I haven't had a chance to see him throw or anything else yet because the offense goes out there at separate times. Just from a personal level, he's a real cool dude.''