Johnny Manziel does want to play in the CFL and for Hamilton according to Ticats vice president of football operations Kent Austin.
“There’s definitely interest and his desire to be in this league…in particular with us. If that works out we’ll see. There is certainly interest on their part to come up and same with us,” Austin told Arash Madani and John Shannon on The FAN 590 in Toronto.
Hamilton has until January 7 to formally offer Manziel a contract and retain his rights for a year after that.
“Certainly we wouldn’t be foolish enough to not offer a contract to adhere to the current bylaws of the league,” Austin said.
“I’ve been in constant communication with his agent Erik Burkhardt. It’s in process right now, so we’ll see how it plays out, but everything is in discussion mode at this point. We’d want to negotiate authenticly and in good faith. We’re going to adhere to the rules of the league and certainly not put ourselves in jeopardy or at risk in any way of losing his rights.”
Austin said there have been discussions with other CFL teams about possible trades, but the main focus for Hamilton is vetting Manziel and trying to sign him to a contract. If the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner signs the decision on where he would be on the Ticats quarterback depth chart would be up to head coach June Jones.
“I am no longer the coach so those are questions better presented to June [Jones]…every head coach that I’ve ever been around will choose who his quarterback is going to be,” Austin said.
Some personnel men have compared Manziel to Hall of Fame quarterback Doug Flutie.
“I can see why there would be comparisons between the two, their ability to improvise, to extend plays, to make plays both with their arm talent and also with their feet, the ability to rise above the game at time and put the game on their shoulders, they’ve both demonstrated their ability to do that,” Austin said. “Some of those guys just have that it thing.”
Many are wondering if Manziel will relapse and fall back into his partying ways, but Austin believes he’s past that point.
“When he took the blow of not being able to come into the league last year, if there was ever a time where the probabilities were higher for a relapse, it would’ve been between that time and now. Because he had to sit out an entire year, again,” Austin explained.
The former CFL quarterback has eyeballed Manziel for a while as an evaluator and he’s been impressed with what he’s seen in person and on film.
“He’s stronger than I thought, physically. I understand now when you watched him play and the tackles that he broke against really good football players and the way he could pull away from guys and extend plays. When you get near him and are around him and you get around him and you watch him work out you realize that he’s sturdier and bigger than people realize, and certainly than I was expecting,” Austin said.
“His arm strength is better than I thought as well. I think his arm’s a little bit stronger than people give him credit for and obviously, his improvisational skills are well documented. The guy can make plays that quite frankly other quarterbacks can’t make. And in this league with the size of this field and the ability to have to be very productive on first down to stay out of second-and-long in a three-down league, it’s really really important that you have the ability to get that big play or in a particular drive to finish drives. Long drives in this league are pretty rare without explosive plays.”
