The Dallas Cowboys and Johnny Manziel looked like a match made in heaven heading into the NFL draft as a business decision, but Stephen Jones apparently got his father Jerry Jones to stick to football instead, allowing Manziel to slip by in the draft rather than take him to be the future replacement for Tony Romo, but it was much closer to reality than anyone realized.
After the draft Jones spoke about taking Zack Martin from Notre Dame as a football decision, but a new book alleges that old man Jones was a lot closer to taking Manziel than previously thought. According to Pro Football Talk, Stephen Jones had to physically take the Manziel draft card out of his father's hand to ensure that the team would stick to football and take the best pick for the team this year. That pick was Martin and he fills a major need for the Cowboys on the offensive line.
Manziel would have been a major distraction and even if that was no faulty of his own, he would not be taking Romo's job anyway barring some sort of injury. Many felt that Jones would not be able to resist taking Manziel, as his attitude and the Cowboys and seemed perfectly suited for each other. Manziel is also from Texas and that could have been a huge draw, although the Cowboys are fairly popular and do not need much more to get people to their names.
The Cowboys are coming into the season with Brandon Weeden as the backup and they ended up out of the playoffs again last year after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 17. Romo missed that game with an injury and now he comes back after having a very good season and he also has that massive contract, which was another reason why the team did not take Manziel. Romo's contract is one of the toughest to move or maneuver around in the league and adding someone like Manziel would likely have been a waste for at least three years barring some serious injury to Romo.
The Cowboys are happy with their decision for now and while Manziel has not won the starting job for the Browns yet, he has played well enough for the team to wait on picking between him and Brian Hoyer. If Romo gets injured in the next three years or loses it and Manziel goes nuts, the team may feel foolish, but they likely made the right choice from a football standpoint by not taking Manziel this year.
"Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones had snatched the Manziel card straight out of his dad's hand. Otherwise, Jerry would have drafted him and JFF would have sat for at least three years behind Tony Romo," author Jim Dent writes, from the Dallas Morning News.
