Johnny Manziel Wants To Be A Cowboy, But Jerry Jones Won’t Even Bring In Nick Foles

Johnny Manziel needs to get his life back in order. And the best place for him to do that, in his opinion, is on the football field. And where would Manziel like to end up?

According to CBS Sports, that would be with Dallas, where Johnny Football was quoted as saying he wants to be a Cowboy next season. Caught by cameras leaving a club in Los Angeles club recently, Manziel point blank told the cameraman his desire is to play with the Dallas Cowboys next year.

It’s no secret either that Jerry Jones has a fondness for Manziel going back as far as the NFL Draft two years ago when he was “this close” to drafting the troubled Texas A&M quarterback. Cooler heads, (namely Jerry’s son, Jerry Jr.) prevailed, and the Cowboys instead drafted pro-bowl lineman Zack Martin. Manziel went 22nd to the Cleveland Browns and the rest, as they say, is history. An incredibly short history plagued by off-the-field problems mind you, but history nonetheless.

Now, following Johnny’s release from the Cleveland Browns, it’s been speculated Jerry Jones might want to make things right for Manziel and bring him into the fold. Jones and the Cowboys have a history of taking in players with troubled pasts (see Greg Hardy, and the recently suspended trio of Randy Gregory, DeMarcus Lawrence, and middle linebacker Rolando McClain) and Jerry told UPI that he doesn’t expect that to change.

“If you are in a risky business, the first way you can have rose-colored glasses on is not to understand you are in a risky business,” Jones said alluding to the Cowboys’ history of bringing in players with dubious pasts to help win football games. But he also admitted that he understands the nature of conducting a team like that.

“Things do happen. It’s just an example of really why you should focus on what is good about it, where the good things are. We are going to focus on the good, good people that can be on the field that can play and make plays for us. That’s not to say we aren’t going to continue to be looking for resourceful ways to win football games.”

So while Jones has opened the door for a potential Manziel to Dallas scenario from a strictly personal side, the issue Jones admits, is a football one. The Cowboys simply don’t have the option to bring in another quarterback to compete for the back up position.

In fact, Jones told Sports Day that forget reclamation projects like Manziel, the Cowboys roster is so stacked they’re not even willing to bring a free agent veteran with actual credentials like Nick Foles to compete with current backup Kellen Moore.

“Foles isn’t an option,” the Cowboys owner and general manager said. “We wouldn’t get him any snaps. We got four that are going to get the snaps.”

Jones was referring to Tony Romo, Moore, Dak Prescott and Jameill Showers. He then doubled down again that Foles has no place on the team.

“We know Foles pretty well. We like Moore.”

As far as bold statements from Jerry Jones goes, that last one might be the boldest yet considering the Cowboys were 1-11 without Romo last year and that includes games played by Kellen Moore. So for now, Johnny Manziel (and Nick Foles for that matter) will have to look elsewhere if they want a shot at competing for a backup role on an NFL roster. And Manziel, in particular, has a long way to go to prove to teams he’s worth the risk.

[Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images]