BEREA, Ohio — When Browns coach Mike Pettine and his top offensive lieutenants emerge from their highly anticipated meeting Tuesday, they should have a starting quarterback picked for the regular-season opener Sept. 7 at Pittsburgh.

But Pettine made it clear the winner of the duel between veteran Brian Hoyer and rookie Johnny Manziel won’t be guaranteed the starting quarterback job for the entire 2014 season.

“I think quarterback is different from other positions, that you do want to make a commitment,” Pettine said Friday after practice. “I don’t know if you can necessarily make a permanent commitment. So much can change over the course of an NFL season, the circumstances, but I think that’s the one position where you probably have to have a little bit more patience maybe than some others.

“As far as if a guy’s not performing to the level you think he can and you’re not getting the results, then you’d go ahead and make a move. It’s somewhere in between. I don’t want whoever the starter is to feel like, ‘Oh, if I make one mistake, I’m out.’ But I also don’t want him to feel like, ‘Hey, I’ve achieved something. This is my team for the year.’”

Pettine’s line of thinking seems to suggest he’s leaning toward Hoyer. It would make sense to bench a struggling Hoyer for Manziel, but not the other way around because the Browns drafted Manziel 22nd overall on May 8 and view him as their future. Most, if not all, coaches would want to stick with their rookie first-round pick through thick and thin rather than demote him and risk shattering his confidence.

Either way, the competition is not over, but a decision should be made by Tuesday.

“Yeah, that should be the target date,” Pettine said. “Something unforeseen could come up, but we’re hopeful because I want to see if I can cut the quarterback questions from the media down by about 90 percent after next week. The chemistry, the continuity, I think that’s important to establish that.”

Although Pettine announced Thursday that Hoyer would start the second preseason game Monday night at Washington, the team plans to give the two quarterbacks about the same number of snaps with the starters and Pettine warned reporters not to count Manziel out.

“All of our options are still on the table,” Pettine said Friday.