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Looks like Johnny Football is coming to the CFL in 2018. I doubt he rejects the offer. Report is it is a decent offer and he wants to plays and if he rejects it, he will have to sit out another year. I expect this deal to be finalized later this week.

Whether this is good for CFL is unknown at this time? It will create publicity for the league and probably sell tickets across the league.

Will Manziel succeed? If he works hard and studies the game maybe. But if he just takes the starter's job for granted and shows up out of shape and not prepared, he will be a bust.

No predictions here.

JohnnyMusso wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:55 pm

Looks like Johnny Football is coming to the CFL in 2018. I doubt he rejects the offer. Report is it is a decent offer and he wants to plays and if he rejects it, he will have to sit out another year. I expect this deal to be finalized later this week.

Whether this is good for CFL is unknown at this time? It will create publicity for the league and probably sell tickets across the league.

Will Manziel succeed? If he works hard and studies the game maybe. But if he just takes the starter's job for granted and shows up out of shape and not prepared, he will be a bust.

No predictions here.

By making the offer which reportedly is quite a bit better than CFL min type money the TiCats meet the "reasonable" criteria needed to maintain exclusive CFL negotiating rights for the next 365 days. I expect a deal will be finalized before training camp. I also expect that given last year's Hamilton starter, Masoli, has just signed an extension that Manziel will be fully aware that the only way he becomes starter is the old fashioned way, he has to earn it.

I wonder if Manziel will make the same mistake that some other ex NFL players make and that is they equate the huge difference in salary between NFL and CFL to mean a huge difference in talent.

Even if Manziel doesn't fall into the above trap he still might not realize the length of time it takes for a QB to fully absorb the nuances of the CFL.

I can still see a scenario whereby the Als trade for Manziel's rights. First, the Als have more pressing needs at quarterback than Hamilton and second, the Als need star power or "name recognition" for their rebuild (and have a history of big name signings) and a bigger need to make a splash in their market and sell tickets.

No doubt Manziel would prefer Montreal to Hamilton anyway. Infinitely more choices for a young guy to enjoy himself in Montreal, and more importantly, he's going to have a better shot of starting with Montreal than he is in Hamilton.

The Ti-Cats would be very well positioned with Masoli as their starting QB (he's legit IMHO). Sign Kevin Glenn to be the back-up, and they still have former Notre Dame star Everett Golson in the developmental role, plus they can be assured of getting something decent back for the rights to Manziel. This is a no-brainer.


DH

I'm not hoping for him to fail. He has done enough of that on his own.

Surprised by the high praise of Jones.

We will see how it goes.

Doug Flutie like talent? Hard to believe. Sceptical so far. He had escapability and creativity, as seen in college.

Three big questions for this fan.

1. Can he behave in a professional, team-oriented manner?

2. Is he a top level talent? We might get to see soon enough.

3. Does Hamilton think he can rise above Masoli on their depth chart? Or do they plan to trade him?

Any reported sightings of Manziel working out? Going for a run? Gym? Practice field tossing footballs? No.

I quite frankly think the CFL are making themselves look amateur with the Manziel love when this guy is proving that partying is more fun.

If there was an inkling of effort to get off the party boat and get in shape NFL teams would be grabbing him instantly.

From what I read Manziel has never taken football seriously and was playing as far back as college on his natural talent - which isn't in dispute but his character sure is.


Does this guy look serious about football OR the CFL?

LOOK: Out-of-work Johnny Manziel trolls Browns for going 0-16 in 2017 NFL season
Cleveland cannot catch a break, even from its former quarterback
Will Brinson
mugshot by Will Brinson
@WillBrinson
3m ago • 1 min read

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/look ... fl-season/

What an idiot Manziel is--trolling his old team, then deleting the tweet.
Doesn't indicate the level of maturity he will need to succeed playing in the CFL.

I'm glad the Lions aren't in a position to waste time on him.

Manziel's camp wants Collaros-type money (which even Collaros is having a hard time getting):

"So that there will not be any ambiguity in regards to financial expectations, and so the public understands how seriously Johnny is considering this move, I will tell you that we believe 'fair deal' means on par with what Hamilton has paid their QB in recent years, despite not having much on-field success. If we cannot reach a deal with Hamilton by this date, we will turn our focus to several other professional options readily available to us."

https://www.tsn.ca/manziel-gives-ticats ... m-1.962449

Bye bye Johnny.

Edit: I do agree that the negotiation rights system is a joke.

I think Montreal would be a bit crazy to take a flyer on Manziel. I don't know who they should get but really maybe they would be better to go into a full rebuilding mode. Trade some of the aging veterans for what they may, perhaps pickup a couple of draft choices. Glean south of the border for talent and work on that basis.

Tired of this soap opera already. Will he or won't he ?

Check this out!!!

It appears that those here who saw MTL as the real location for Manziel might be prescient. I didn't see it and now I think I see what's really going on here.

It's now appearing to me that the Ticats HC June Jones wants Manziel but I see Eric Tillman's hands all over this one and what they're really doing is using Mr. Football to get richer at the trade table knowing that Kavis Reed really doesn't have a QB and only Kavis would see a positive in gambling on this guy.

A trade would achieve two things:
1. Give Hamilton an asset who wants to be in the CFL.
2. Ensure MTL continues to flounder as an opponent.

If the Ticats from the owner, Austin and GM Tillman really wanted Manziel they'd not have let his agent try for a trade.

Burkhardt said in his statement that he was given permission to try and work out a trade with another CFL team, which all logic suggests is the Montreal Alouettes.

Montreal has a gaping hole at quarterback, a need to make a buzz in their market and a head coach in Mike Sherman who knows Manziel from successfully recruiting him when he was the head coach at Texas A&M. (Sherman left after Manziel’s redshirt freshman year.)

https://www.tsn.ca/the-manziel-contract ... d-1.963001

While interesting for a brief moment, I have grown weary of the buzz surrounding Manziel potentially coming to the CFL.

Granted, I am not a fan of his attitude towards playing (refusing to study the playbook of the Browns), his motivation (the whole mimicking the rubbing of money at every opportunity is shallow, exceedingly rapacious and speaks of a very grasping person) and his man-child approach to life.

But the system does afford him a second chance to redeem himself and he can use it.

But if that second chance comes with even a whiff of being done for publicity or creating a buzz for a struggling team, then that doesn't do the league, his potential team or the fans any favours. What teams need are qualified QBs that can play and fulfill the role of 1st, 2nd or 3rd string.

I don't pay the price for a season's ticket to watch the likes of Johnny Manziel stroll along the sidelines with a clipboard simply because he has some notoriety.

Pay him what is commensurate with other inexperienced QBs coming into the league, make him compete just like any other QB and at the end of the day, judge him simply on that.

I can understand the lure of Manziel from a ticket-selling perspective, but paying Manziel to come in and be a starter in year 1 would be an incredibly stupid risk.
How many first-year qbs can come in and be successful s a starter out of the gate? Not Moon, not Flutie, not Garcia, not Dickenson...
Factor in Manziel's lack of playing time over the past two years, attitude of entitlement, and other personal characteristics, and this is just a disaster waiting to happen.
If I were Hamilton, I would make a statement to the team and its fans and just release him from their list outright. If I were Montreal, I would be very wary.

CardiacKid wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:50 am

Pay him what is commensurate with other inexperienced QBs coming into the league, make him compete just like any other QB and at the end of the day, judge him simply on that.

I hear what you're saying....BUT, this is not your average, garden variety college star and NFL flame-out potentially coming up to Canada to resurrect his career. Like it or not, Manziel's notoriety will sells ticket, increase TV rating, sell jerseys, raise the league's profile etc. - at least in the short term. Therefore, I believe it is not unreasonable to ask for (and receive) significantly more than an entry level contract. Should it be $500K a season? No, but I'm not going to tell Mitchell, Austin, and Tillman how to allocate their cap or run their franchise. I think it's a risk, which is why I would dangle a deal in front of Reed in Montreal.

If I am the agent, of course I am going to try to garner a bigger contract (did the head coach not predict that he's going to be the best player ever??). This is all negotiations. Not a big deal. Also, let's not assume that everything coming out of the agent's mouth is being initiated or prescribed by the player.



DH