Johnny Manziel Traded to Montreal: "It's A Win, Win"
Johnny Manziel has been traded from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to the Montreal Alouettes in a five player deal that also includes two draft picks.
After having multiple conversations with CFL executives, both Johnny and his agent Erik Burkhardt told me tonight they both liked Hamilton and the situation with Coach June Jones, but Jeremiah Masoli has been locked in as their starter since before Johnny signed in Hamilton, who owned his negotiation rights since. Masoli has been playing well this season and a benching didn’t seem likely, although the team is off to a 2-3 start with 2 straight losses. Johnny has been ok with being their 2nd guy because he understands it takes time learning a completely different league and playbook. The CFL takes time to adjust to, especially after being out of the game for a couple of years.
However, EB ended the call by saying, “ultimately, we didn’t go to the CFL to not play football. This is a win-win situation.”
A couple of noteworthy things…
1. Montreal’s head coach is Mike Sherman who recruited Johnny to Texas A&M. At one time, he was headed to Oregon and flipped over to the Aggies to play for Sherman. Of course, he eventually became the 2012 Heisman trophy winner under first year HC Kevin Sumlin (as if I had to remind anyone of that). Now the two are reunited.
2. Montreal has the lowest scoring offense in the CFL this season. They’re also desperate for a QB after their starter Drew Willy went down with his second injury of the season last week. Their backup Jeff Matthews is also hurt. They’ve been having to roll out their third string QB. They’re also 1-4 on the season. Not great.
3. Despite the fact that Johnny had yet to play a snap in the regular season in Hamilton, he’ll probably be expected to take over the starting role as soon as he can learn the new offense and playbook. It would be crazy to expect him to adjust right away, but we’ll see how desperate they really are. And for what was given up, they seem pretty desperate. TBD.
Via Montreal Gazette:
“This is a move both (general manager) Kavis Reed and I felt we needed to make at this time,” Als head coach Mike Sherman said. “Neither one of us believes in the status quo and felt we needed to shake things up. Johnny is someone we believe can elevate one of the most important positions on our team.
“I look forward to reuniting with Johnny again and working with him.”
4. Kavis Reed flew to Dallas to meet with Johnny and EB last year. They’ve shown interest in having #2 on their roster since before he actually signed the contract with Hamilton. So in the end, they’re getting what they wanted.
Needless to say, it’s quite the week for the CFL and Johnny. So, here’s your friendly reminder to subscribe to Comeback SZN.