Johnny Manziel in play for New York Giants?
Johnny Manziel walks on the field after running the 40 yard dash during the 2014 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
The Johnny Manziel rumors are reaching new levels of insanity before the start of the 2014 NFL Draft, and I thought I heard it all until I saw this report. Per a “person with knowledge of the team’s draft philosophy” close to NJ.com’s Jordan Raaanan, the New York Giants will consider drafting Manziel with the 12th overall pick in the draft if he’s available there. As always, it’s important to take most reports with a grain of salt when it comes to pre-draft stuff, because most reports end up being smokescreens. It’s also important to pay close attention to the semantics of this report, because “considering” doing something is a rather vague term. How much are the Giants considering drafting Manziel? Barely?
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It’s all very interesting, especially since most of the recent Manziel rumors have circled around the Giants ever-popular NFC East rivals, and drafting Manziel would be a very Jerry Jonesian move for the Dallas Cowboys. For the Giants, it would be beyond shocking, and ridiculously out of character for GM Jerry Reese and the organization.
Eli Manning had a down year last year, but he’s a sure-fire franchise quarterback, whereas Manziel is a very risky commodity. The Giants are much better off drafting someone like Taylor Lewan or Eric Ebron at 12 in order to solidify the players around Manning on offense, as he was a sitting duck out there due to bad blocking and poor routes from his receivers. Some of the struggles were brought on by his own poor play, but Manning’s circumstances didn’t help him at all last year. He’ll bounce back in 2014, especially if the Giants focus on drafting top players around him. I don’t buy that the Giants would even consider Manziel, but it’s worth at least keeping in mind due to the craziness of the draft. It’s also important to remember that the Giants still have Ryan Nassib on the roster and have more QBs than they know what to do with at this point. One of those QBs is Josh Freeman, who already counts as a developmental QB behind Eli.