Johnny Manziel to Fall in 2014 NFL Draft

There is no denying that former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is a polarizing figure. Either people think he can play and is just a prima donna off the field, or they think he’s a headcase that doesn’t have a skill-set that can translate to the next level.

Regardless of where you stand on the future of Johnny Football, it’s impossible to ignore the criticisms, especially the ones that make sense. After all, he is undersized and has an unorthodox playing style. The only question is, are NFL teams potentially missing out on a truly special player, or merely nailing it on the head when/if they pass on him in the draft?

One ex-GM, current ESPN analyst Mark Dominik, suggests Manziel will “fall more than people think” in this year’s draft. It’s especially interesting to hear Dominik’s perspective, as he was operating as an executive as recent as January of 2014 and surely has heard whispers from some of the top decision-makers in the league in regards to how they value Manziel.

While Dominik made it clear he wouldn’t be shocked to see Manziel have a bit of a free fall in the first round of the draft, he also suggested a team could still trade back into round one to snag him, and that he’d be taken somewhere near the bottom of the first round.

Dominik is only re-stating what many draft gurus are already predicting; that Manziel might be overrated in the public eye and that the quarterback position just doesn’t yield the safe type of talent that normally should go in the first round of drafts.

With no clear-cut Andrew Luck in this year’s crop, draft experts are suggesting major slides for any of the top quarterbacks – Manziel included.

While that is entirely possible, ESPN’s Adam Schefter points out that there is also too great of a need for legit talent at quarterback for too many teams to play it safe. In fact, if teams play it too safe, they’re in a sense gambling anyways, as they are betting that Manziel and other passers will still be around when they select again.

Schefter specifically believes Manziel will go somewhere between the third and 13th pick in this year’s draft, with the Jacksonville Jaguars being his first likely landing spot and the St. Louis Rams being as far as he’d probably fall.

There is also the chance that Manziel slides all the way to the second round. However, even if he somehow did have an epic slide like New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith experienced last year, he surely wouldn’t be hanging around for long with numerous quarterback-needy teams picking again at the top of round two.