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CFL 2018: Analysing the Johnny Manziel trade

Johnny Manziel with Texas A and M. (Image: Creative Commons)
Roar Guru
26th July, 2018
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It was the trade that had to happen – and now it has.

Through six weeks of the 2018 Canadian Football League season, the undisputed biggest name to arrive north of the border in at least a decade, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel, stood on the sideline. He was dressed in the uniform of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but holding a clipboard, backup to Jeremiah Masoli, who has experienced a season of up and downs, yet still has the full support of the TiCat coaching staff.

We were conditioned early in the Manziel-to-Hamilton saga not to expect anything different. Hamilton’s head coach June Jones praised Manziel but, at the same time, made no bones about the fact that Masoli was his guy.

Even when the former Oregon Duck pivot struggled, Manziel didn’t get into the game. Not even for a third down conversion or for an offensive package tailored to Johnny Football’s

It was either going to take an epically bad performance from Masoli – I’m talking a game with multiple early interceptions and a completion percentage well south of fifty – or a trade to get Manziel off the sidelines and into the game.

Into a game that, at least according to Jones, could be the greatest player to ever play in Canada. Hyperbole, maybe, but no one knew for sure, because, aside from some pre-season action, Manziel hadn’t taken a snap in Canada.

Johnny Manziel playing for Texas A&M (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

Johnny Manziel with Texas A and M. (Image: Creative Commons)

The latter happened early this week. Johnny Football was traded from Hamilton to the Montreal Alouettes, a franchise long known for it’s great quarterbacks – Anthony Calvillo built a Hall of Fame career there with three Grey Cup wins and more than 78,000 passing yards – and one, currently, in desperate need of a star at that position.

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Now, they have a chance at said star. Here are the positives.

Playing time for Manziel
Manziel figures to get into the game sooner rather than later. He won’t start this Thursday against Edmonton – that will be Vernon Adams – but expect to see him taking meaningful snaps. And there’s a very real possibility that Manziel starts next week. It wasn’t good for the league to have the high-profile signal-caller standing on the sidelines.

Positively for Manziel, he will rejoin the man who convinced him to change his commitment from Oregon to Texas A and M, the new Montreal head coach Mike Sherman. At least Johnny will have a familiar face and voice as he tries to learn a new offensive system.

Montreal seemingly solved their quarterback issue
You can make a solid case that the franchise hasn’t recovered from Calvillo’s January 2014 retirement. They’ve just about had a revolving door installed and through it has come many quarterbacks – Darian Durant, Kevin Glenn, Troy Smith, Rakeem Cato and Drew Willy, to name just a few – but none with the same talent as Calvillo. None have really come close, either.

The Als need a good quarterback and Manziel represents arguably their best candidate since Calvillo.

Manziel’s presence will help the struggling Alouettes
Montreal, with one win on the season and scoring less than fourteen points a game, has been nothing short of a dumpster fire this year, and the acquisition of Johnny Football figures to have a pretty immediate impact on a city that seemed to be souring on the idea of professional Canadian football.

Expect crowds at Molson-Percival Stadium, which have been poor for a few seasons now, to be on the upswing pretty quickly, not to mention media coverage of Manziel. If this last week is anything to go by, there won’t be a shortage of Manziel content for those interested. If he becomes the offensive threat that Montreal hopes he will be, the Als become the centre of the Canadian Football League universe again.

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Broadcast numbers will be up
TSN, the league’s exclusive broadcaster, must be doing cartwheels. They’ve have had issues with getting people to tune into Montreal games in recent seasons, but now that Manziel comes along, football fans – I dare say, even casual ones – are likely to skyrocket. Either way, whether he succeeds or flames out spectacularly, people are going to want to watch.

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel

Johnny Manziel with Texas A and M. (Image: Creative Commons)

The CFL’s American footprint should expand
With games broadcast frequently on the ESPN networks, there is a small but growing fan-base for CFL football in America. Throw the polarising Johnny Manziel into that mix, especially as a starting quarterback, and those numbers are going to grow.

One of the most prodigious talents to ever step onto a college field, Johnny Football remains something of a household name in America, and with his social media presence – he has 2.2 million Twitter followers – it’s hard to imagine that the profile of the CFL won’t be significantly enlarged.

But then there are negatives.

What if Manziel isn’t any good?
In a league where we’ve seen starting quarterbacks injured fairly often this season – Bo Levi Mitchell and Zach Collaros recently, Matt Nichols during the pre-season – you have to wonder whether Hamilton would have traded away their back-up if they were confident he could step in and run the offence if something happened top Masoli.

Aside from some pre-season snaps (he was 21-31 with a touchdown and ran six times for 19 yards), we really haven’t seen Manziel on a Canadian field. Maybe he just hasn’t impressed June Jones and his staff enough?

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It’s an interesting angle worth kicking around, especially considering the nuances of the Canadian game and the fact that Manziel didn’t have a particularly brilliant stint in the NFL. The proof, of course, will be in the pudding. We don’t know either way yet, but we soon will. Maybe as soon as this week.

Montreal have given up a lot to get Manziel
The Als gave up first round Entry Draft selections in 2019 and 2020 to Hamilton, as well as Canadian defensive end Jamaal Westerman and receiver Chris Williams, who was the only viable deep threat through six seasons for Montreal.

Yes, they acquired Adarius Bowman from Winnipeg in the following days, but Bowman’s production has been way down. Missing out on that sort of top-end Canadian talent in consecutive drafts, an important part of building a roster that can compete for a Grey Cup, isn’t going to make things easy.

All in all, a risky move from general manager Kavis Reed, but one I feel was necessary – at least to a certain degree. The team Reed put together is terrible, and he needed to do something to move the needle and cut through the general apathy that most Montreal natives currently have for their football team.

No doubt it’s a risky deal, with plenty of upside for the TiCats, getting Westerman and Williams. Reed will look like a genius if it works – but will hear about it from all and sundry if it doesn’t.

What if Manziel is really good?
If Johnny Football finds success in Montreal, there’s a good chance he goes back to the NFL after his two-year contract expires. So, it’s good in the short term for the Alouettes if he comes out and dominates, but him then leaving to head back south would mean that the franchise essentially gave up two first-round draft choices and two good players for a rental quarterback.

Manziel departs and the Alouettes are up the proverbial creek. The only way this wouldn’t be a massive failure is if Manziel wins a Grey Cup on the way out. That means this year or next, and I would be hugely surprised if that were to happen.

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What about the Montreal nightlife?
Manziel has well-documented issued with partying during his NFL career and since then. Many local journalists pointed out that moving to Hamilton as opposed to practically every other CFL city, would be a good thing because there’s no night life in the steel city worth mentioning, thus keeping Manziel’s focus purely on football.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Johnny Manziel in his time with the Browns. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Montreal is known for it’s love of the good life, so aside from learning the nuances of the Canadian game and trying to help the Als franchise out of it’s current funk, Johnny is going to have to avoid the lure of the city’s bright lights. Let’s hope he can do it.

Whatever happens with Johnny Manziel at the Montreal Alouettes, it’s guaranteed to be headline-grabbing and compelling. The Alouettes travel to Commonwealth Stadium on Friday morning AEST to play Edmonton.

We’ll likely see Manziel in that game at some point, especially if things turn bad for the Als, which, given their season to date, is a distinct possibility.

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