Even if they wanted to suspend Johnny Manziel for his involvement in a recent off-field incident, the Browns wouldn’t be able to do so, GM Ray Farmer told reporters, including ESPN.com’s Pat McManamon. The Browns’ only option, under the NFL’s rules, was to make Manziel inactive for this past Sunday’s game against the Rams, the GM said.

Only the NFL has the authority to discipline the quarterback, because potential personal conduct policy violations fall under the umbrella of the league, not the team — Manziel was involved in an argument with his girlfriend and there may have been fisticuffs between the two.

Here’s more on Manziel, along with some other Browns-related items:

• The NFL hopes to have its Manziel investigation wrapped up by the end of the week, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Presumably, a decision on whether or not the signal-caller will be disciplined will be announced shortly after the investigation concludes.
• Manziel’s meeting with the league is imminent and “there’s a sense of urgency to it,” per head coach Mike Pettine (link via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com). It makes sense that Pettine would want things wrapped up as soon as possible, since the team needs some clarity on its quarterback situation for Week 8 — Josh McCown is banged up, and while he may be able to play, the team would need to add an insurance quarterback if Manziel receives a suspension from the NFL.
• With a game against the Cardinals on tap this weekend for the Browns, Cabot notes (via Twitter) that the Browns could have signed running back Chris Johnson when Duke Johnson was injured in camp. However, the Browns instead discussed signing Ray Rice at the time, and ended up passing on both Rice and Chris Johnson, who is now second in the league in rushing yards.
• The upcoming game against Arizona also resulted in Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians speaking to Browns reporters today, including Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan. The former Cleveland offensive coordinator admitted he thought he might get a chance to return to the Browns as their head coach in 2009, but the club quickly hired Eric Mangini instead. “I always thought if you could build a winner in Cleveland how special that would be,” Arians said of the missed opportunity.

WEDNESDAY, 1:54pm: According to Rapoport (via Twitter), Pierre-Paul can earn up to about $8.7MM on his one-year contract, which is the prorated portion of his franchise tag. However, the guarantee is lower than that, and the deal includes plenty of incentives.

TUESDAY, 6:46pm: The Giants officially announced the signing of JPP.

6:22pm: The Giants will ask for a two-week roster exemption for Pierre-Paul, who” could be on the field in some form or fashion tomorrow,” Rapoport tweets.

6:10pm: The Giants will sign Jason Pierre-Paul tonight, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). JPP is officially back with big blue, though it remains to be seen when he’ll make his debut. It’ll be a one-year deal (link) and the two parties are working on finalizing the language. 

There are currently conflicting reports on when JPP will make his return to the field. The most recent word came from Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News who heard from a source that Week 12 against Washington is the most likely possibility. There was some thought that JPP could be ready for the Patriots on November 15th, but that source says that a post-bye week return is more realistic.

The Giants waited a long time to get a look at JPP’s hand and when they finally got a chance to examine it early in the season, they were not comfortable with giving him the green light. The defensive end finally circled back to Big Blue in the last week, however, and they are ostensibly satisfied with what they saw. Pierre-Paul is not only down a digit, but he reportedly also suffered a broken middle finger and also lost a piece of his thumb.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Here are Wednesday’s practice squad signings and cuts from around the NFL:

Baltimore Ravens

• Signed: RB Terrence Magee, T Marcel Jones (Twitter link via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun)

Houston Texans

• Signed: RB Daryl Richardson (link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle)

New England Patriots

• Signed: S Ross Ventrone (Twitter link via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com)

New York Jets

• Signed: LB Quanterus Smith (Twitter link via team)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Signed: G Ryan Groy (link via Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times)

When the Bears released veteran defensive lineman Jeremiah Ratliff last week, details began to trickle out about an eruption from Ratliff that led to the move — and led to the Bears temporarily increasing the security at their team facility. Although that incident led to Ratliff’s release, it wasn’t his first such outburst, as Mike Freeman of Nerdy Football details.

According to Freeman, in the last week of the 2014 season, Ratliff showed up at a Bears practice and behaved “belligerently” toward players and coaches, leading to him being asked to leave practice multiple times. The incident sounds awfully similar to what happened at Halas Hall last week, but in 2014, head coach Marc Trestman not only didn’t discipline Ratliff — he named the defensive lineman a team captain for the coming week.

Per Freeman, the decision to reward Ratliff for the outburst may have cost Trestman the locker room, and it wasn’t long until the head coach was replaced. Under new coach John Fox, the Bears didn’t tolerate a similar display from Ratliff this season.

Let’s round up a few more odds and ends from across the NFC….

• Encouraging Ratliff’s so-called “passion” last year didn’t work out well for Trestman — will taking a similar approach to Greg Hardy play out any better for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones? David Fleming of ESPN is skeptical, calling Jones’ support of Hardy the latest sign of dysfunction in Dallas.
• Vincent Jackson‘s knee injury is expected to sideline him for multiple weeks, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). However, Rapoport adds that the injury won’t be a season-ender for the Buccaneers receiver.
• With the 49ers rapidly falling out of contention, and next Tuesday’s trade deadline looming, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wonders if San Francisco would consider trading Anquan Boldin, and whether or not Boldin would welcome a trade to a contender. I wouldn’t expect the Niners to make a move involving the veteran wideout, but if they do, the Panthers would be one destination that makes some sense, as Florio observes.
• While general manager Martin Mayhew has been aggressive in the past, Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com (video link) doesn’t expect the Lions to acquire any veterans before this year’s trade deadline. If Mayhew and the Lions make any deals, they’ll probably be for draft picks, says Rothstein.

After enduring three years of losing, Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie is finally starting to see his rebuilding plan pay off a little, writes Josh Dubow of The Associated Press. With young players like Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, and Khalil Mack contributing significantly to an improved Raiders team, McKenzie suggests that he and the club has to “take the punches” for a few years.

“The key was really looking at the big picture, not get so down on myself and the team at that point knowing what was ahead of me,” McKenzie said. “It wasn’t easy. I’m used to being in the playoffs. I haven’t been since I’ve been here. That’s the goal.”

Here’s more from out of the NFL’s West divisions:

• Joel Corry of CBSSports.com takes a look at how the Raiders‘ roster and cap management got the team to this spot, and speculates on what the next move is for Oakland.
• Cardinals GM Steve Keim told Arizona Sports 98.7 that he’s gearing up to speak to agents about contract extensions, as Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com writes. Keim didn’t specify which players he’ll be targeting, but one can speculate that veterans like Chris Johnson and Jermaine Gresham – both on one-year deals – are candidates. Defensive backs Justin Bethel, Rashad Johnson, and Jerraud Powers are also potentially heading toward the open market.
• Asked in a mailbag about the possibility of the Broncos and Bears working out a trade, perhaps for a player like running back Matt Forte, Mike Klis of 9News says he can’t see John Fox and Adam Gase wanting to do a deal that would help the Broncos win a Super Bowl. Fox and Gase, of course, are in their first year with the Bears, having left Denver last offseason.
• According to NFL executive Eric Grubman, the league as a whole is negotiating with the St. Louis task force about its stadium plan for the Rams, as Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details. Grubman on the NFL’s response to the task force’s term sheet: “We have some questions about the term sheet which we hope to get answered over the course of the next couple of days or week, and I think probably next week and the weeks after, we’ll be in discussions with the task force.”

Zach Links contributed to this post.