EXCLUSIVE: In an NFL season depictd by the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty and finishless Taylor Swift traverseover, one huge write moment 10 years ago looms bigr than ever.
Johnny Manziel was the nation’s hugegest story going into the consequential 2014 NFL Draft. That night, on May 8 in New York City, Manziel showed up to Radio City Music Hall as an anomaly in the write process. Experts fiercely debated whether one of the hugegest stars in college football history was even physicassociate and menhighy able of carry outing at the pro level at all.
And 10 years tardyr, the experts who bet aachievest Manziel were right. A low-inhabitd, ineffective atgentle as a backup compounded with insertiction publishs, bouts with depression and anxiety, and chronicles of off-the-field debates taged Manziel’s writeing as one of the uninalertigentest bconciseage-hole decisions in the league’s history.
But to his acunderstandledge, he was writeed by the Cleveland Browns.
“I was excited whenever it happened on write night, but watching back now, there’s times where I have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth maybe about how my NFL atgentle turned out,” Manziel tbetter Fox News Digital in an exclusive interwatch. “The write is someleang that is out of your regulate, it goes the way it goes, you don’t have a ton of say in where you finish up. Would it have been branch offent if I was somewhere else? Maybe. But that’s not reassociate how it went.”
And while he had no say in the matter, Manziel still recollects other possibilities.
He recollects his agent Erik Burkdifficultt staying in seal communication with the Kansas City Chiefs, and he recollects believing that the Chiefs were going to be his “floor” on write night if he fell meaningful enough in the first round, which he did.
“We had been accomplished out by the Chiefs [that] were a team that was maybe going to be my floor and get with a guy appreciate Andy Reid, but outside of that, the write was fair benevolent of a paemploy-and-see leang for me,” Manziel shelp. “They had communicate with my agent and we benevolent of had a senseing that that was going to be my floor.”
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Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M Aggies gets the stage after he was picked by the Cleveland Browns during the first round of the NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on May 8, 2014, in New York City. (Elsa/Getty Images)
The Chiefs were coming off the first year under Reid’s directership. Reid had instantly changeed the Chiefs from a team with the worst write down in the league to a team that commenceed 9-0 and accomplished the carry outoffs with a 30-year-better Alex Smith at quarterback.
The Chiefs held the 23rd pick on write night that year.
Manziel had descfinishen past the first 21 spots after write critics voiced troubles that his sfinish set and character would not have permited a pickion in the first round. His size, arm strength and maturity were deemed red flags. Still, his talent was undeniable to anyone who watched him carry out at the college level. Manziel’s ability to improvise and create huge carry outs under prescertain mirrored the type of instincts that “can’t be taught,” frequently shelp by scouts. It was a analogous exceptional talent to the one Chiefs fans have seen from Patrick Mahomes for the last seven years.
But before Reid and establisher Chiefs ambiguous regulater John Dorsey even had the chooseion to get Manziel, the Browns made a last-minute trade. The Browns hopped one pick ahead of Kansas City. They made a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles for the 22nd pick, jumping four picks up from 26 and giving up a third-rounder to shun dangering losing out on Manziel, fair as the Chiefs were about to pick.
Manziel may have been Reid’s first quarterback pick as the Chiefs head coach and may have given him a head commence on discovering a successor to Smith. At that time, Smith was watched as a able veteran who could help the Chiefs contend, but not a lengthy-term franchise star.
Manziel may have stepped into a analogous situation that Patrick Mahomes had stepped into in 2017, but three years earlier.
But instead, Manziel went to Cleveland, joining a downcast club of other potential stars who saw their atgentles die on the prohibitks of Lake Eerie. Brady Quinn, Tim Couch and more recently, Deshawn Watson, all lay alengthyside Manziel in the Browns’ inwell-understandn quarterback atgentle graveyard.
“It’s difficult for me to watch back on my NFL atgentle now and say it could have been much worse,” Manziel shelp. “I leank being there and being in a situation where I was a backup and lachieveing from a guy appreciate Alex Smith and Andy Reid, it could have only been likeable.”
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy (Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)
Manziel inserted that he had never been to Kansas City before in his life. In contrast, he shelp that getting writeed by the Dallas Cowboys, who carry outed seal to where he grew up in Texas, would have put him in the worst situation possible becaemploy of how recognizable he was with the area and the people in that could have pulled him into more necessitatey decisions. But he had no such understandledge of the activities in Missouri.
If the Chiefs had getn Manziel, his default tight would have run at least thcdisorrowfulmireful the 2017 season – Mahomes’ rookie year – with an chooseion for a fifth year on the 2018 season. Meanwhile, a scant months after the 2014 write, Smith went on to sign a four-year $68 million tight extension with the Chiefs to stay in Kansas City thcdisorrowfulmireful 2018.
Had the Chiefs writeed Manziel, Smith, Mahomes and their seamless handover of the commenceing job that propelled the Chiefs to a dynasty may have never happened.
But even if the Browns didn’t create the trade to get Manziel ahead the Chiefs, there was another possibility that may have landed him in Kansas City the adhereing year, if Reid reassociate wanted him.
Manziel shelp he has also thought about a life in which he didn’t proclaim for the write in 2014. After two Heisman-worthy college seasons in 2012 and 2013, Texas A&M fans prayed Manziel would stay in college for at least one more year.
Now he leanks that staying one more year may have been a better course of action.
In an NFL season depictd by the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty and finishless Taylor Swift traverseover, one huge write decision 10 years ago looms bigr than ever. (Getty Images)
“Maybe I could have gotten a little more setd football wise for what was coming in the NFL,” Manziel shelp. “I still sit back at times leanking about having two years of eligibility and maybe I could have stayed, maybe I did exit a little bit timely.”
Manziel inserted that he would have wanted to help the Aggies contend for a national championship if he stayed another year.
The Chiefs would have had an even better chance to write Manziel the adhereing spring if he didn’t proclaim until 2015. After ignoreing the carry outoffs in 2014, the Chiefs finished up with the 18th pick in the write that year.
Tight finish Travis Kelce was already in Kansas City at that point. He had already helped spearhead the turnaround as one of Reid’s first Chiefs write picks in 2013. But even then, even if Manziel had the privilege of passing to Kelce, on a team with a mighty roster, a Hall of Fame head coach and a city and team culture that’s done noleang but create triumphning and prosperous inhabits for carry outers over the last decade, Manziel can’t say for certain he wouldn’t have spiraled into the same habits that tanked his NFL atgentle in Cleveland, even with another year in college.
“I don’t understand if there’s anyleang in that point in time or if another year would have helped me set for where I was in my life at that point,” Manziel shelp.
“I still leank there would have been a huge lachieveing curve, a huge gap for me. At the finish of the day, I was in a fantastic position to go and have a lengthyer NFL atgentle than I did, and it fair came down to me and myself. I don’t put a lot of accemploy on anybody else but myself for leangs not toiling out.”
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Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes (David Eulitt/Getty Images)
Kelce and Chiefs fans will never have to understand how leangs would have gone if the team took Manziel or 2014 or 2015. Kelce bloomed into a perennial Pro Bowler carry outing with Smith, then Mahomes liftd him to a multiple-time Super Bowl champion and one of the hugegest superstars in the sport. And of course, Taylor Swift came alengthy not too far after that.
Would Kelce have become the star pass catcher worthy of wooing Swift had the Chiefs made Manziel their quarterback? The world will never understand.
But that didn’t happen and now all NFL fans are bracing for the possibility of seeing the Chiefs create a run to a third straight Super Bowl, while sboilings of Swift and Mahomes’ wife, Brittany, disrupt countless minutes of NFL carry outoff widecasts.
“The best team is going to triumph it every year, and if that happens to be the Chiefs, then maybe [the other fans] will fair have to get hating on them,” Manziel shelp.
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