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Johnny Manziel Needs A Team And Dallas Needs A Backup QB – Here’s Why It Won’t Happen

By Michael Dolce
Published on: 04:49 PST, Aug 14, 2016

Kellen Moore was supposed to be the backup quarterback to Tony Romo until he broke his leg in training camp and completely altered Dallas’ plans. Johnny Manziel has gone on record as saying he wants to play for the Cowboys. Jerry Jones almost drafted him in the 2014 NFL Draft.

Match made in heaven right? Not quite.

As reported by Sports Illustrated, Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones went on CBS Sports Radio and addressed the rumors of a Manziel-Dallas pairing.

“There’s no chance,” Jones said. “Obviously Johnny needs to get his hands around his life. He needs to do the things that make him a good person off the field, I think, before he can ever be successful in our league.”

So just like that, rumors of Johnny Football making his way to Dallas have been squashed…for now.

With Jerry Jones behind the curtain, there was always the thought Manziel would eventually find his way back home to Texas, but at this point, even Matt Mosely of SportsDay thinks that ship has sailed.

“Jerry was in love with Johnny Football at one point, but there’s no way you could trust the guy. And with the NFL already all over you for all this suspension nonsense, you can’t bring this guy in. He would start out with a suspension. I root for him. But more as a person than a football player. He may have already forfeited his football career.”

With Johnny out of the picture, what’s more likely to happen now is that Dallas will simply promote from within. As reported by Sportsrageous, Dallas’ rookie Dak Prescott impressed during the Cowboys first preseason game.

“Rookie QB Dak Prescott, who is viewed as Tony Romo’s eventual successor, had a great first preseason game. He completed 10 out of the 12 passes he made with two touchdowns and zero picks. He also had a passing rating of 154.5.”

In fact, he was more impressive than the number one overall pick in Jared Goff, whom the Cowboys squared off against on the other side.

“While it is way too early to draw definitive conclusions,” Jarrett Bell of USA Today wrote, “the contrasting experiences of the quarterbacks suggested much about how these guys are progressing.”

So is it safe to assume Prescott has won the job already? Probably not, considering it was just one preseason game against the Rams who aren’t expected to do well this coming season. In fact, David Moore of Dallas Morning News thinks its inevitable that Dallas will indeed trade for a veteran considering they went 1-11 last year in Romo’s absence. And they could use disgruntled O-lineman Ron Leary as bait.

If that’s the situation, one thought that has been circulated has been the Jets Geno Smith. With New York stacked with four quarterbacks including Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, Christian Hackenberg, it might make sense for the Jets to unload Smith who has NFL regular season experience. Todd Bowles however was quick to label Smith as their number two quarterback when he addressed the media following practice on Saturday as reported by ESPN.

“Geno is the No. 2 right now,” Bowles said. “We’re not making a competition after one preseason game.”

And indeed it probably doesn’t make sense for the Jets to trade Smith considering Petty has no NFL experience. Instead, FOX Sports suggested the Cowboys could look to bring back veteran Matt Cassel who was on the team last year, in case Prescott isn’t capable.

[Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images]

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johnny manziel Dallas Cowboys Geno Smith Dak Prescott
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