Rams’ Desire For Manziel Is Near Nonsense
May 7th, 2014
Believe it or not, Joe invests extensive research into Bucs opponents. And given that Tampa Bay has played the Rams the past two seasons, will again this season, and Joe traveled to St. Louis for the 2013 game and has friends in Rams media, Joe feels qualified to offer a Rams opinion.
The alleged interest of St. Louis in Johnny Football with the No. 2 overall pick is as close to a nonsense rumor as you’ll find today.
Joe has heard Rams head coach Jeff Fisher do countless interviews, dating back to November, explaining how excited he is that quarterback Sam Bradford will enter his third consecutive year alongside offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Fisher talks about how rare that is in the NFL (it really is) and about how Bradford isn’t just a good player but the future of the franchise. (And keep in mind Schottenheimer runs one of the most stale offenes in the NFL and likely wouldn’t even know what to do with Johnny Football.)
Bradford, 26, played pretty well last year (14 TDs, four picks, three wins) before getting hurt in his seventh start. The punishing Rams running game didn’t get cooking until after Bradford blew out his knee.
Then there’s the pesky fact that the Rams owe Bradford $14 million this season, and it would be nearly impossible to find a team willing to trade for him coming off an ACL tear in October — Newsflash: former Bucs general manager Mark Dominik is out of the league.
Fisher could make an immediate-impact upgrade in this draft with the No. 2 overall pick. Or he could trade down and score a bounty of fast-impact players. The Rams also have the No. 13 overall pick. Johnny Football is not a quick fix for a Rams team that believes it’s ready to win now after going 5-6-1 in their tough division over the past two years.
How confident are the Rams? In the pivotal third year of Fisher’s regime, they did virtually nothing in free agency this offseason. Compare that to the Bucs gutting their roster and assigning new jerseys left and right.
The Rams’ first “big” signing came two weeks after the free agency bell rang, when they inked the immortal defensive tackle Alex Carrington from Buffalo to be a good rotational guy.
Longtime Rams sage and Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz says the Rams have “planted some Johnny Manziel rumors,” and Miklasz believes the Rams are either eager to trade down from the No. 2 overall pick, or draft Jadeveon Clowney or a premium left tackle, which he considers a major need.
Joe’s confident you can take one of those scenarios to the bank — not the Rams wanting to draft Johnny Football at No. 2.
May 7th, 2014 at 9:51 am
The Rams wanna replicate two years ago when they pulled off an all-time great heist from the Redskins. The problem for them is everyone is now afraid to sacrifice that level of assets to trade up because of that trade. They’re puffing up the smoke right now to try and get someone to desperate overpay to come up to 2. And if they pull it off I will be in awe of Les Snead.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:02 am
Joe, I can totally see the Rams trying to work a deal to trade Bradford and take another QB. You are correct that Bradford played decently last season before his injury…BUT he has also only completed 2 of his 4 seasons healthy. He has never thrown for more than 3,700 yds in a season. He has never tossed more than 21 TDs in a season ( hell, Glennon had 19 last year as a rookie in just 13 games). And he has a career comp. % of just 58.6%. Bradford may not be a complete bust, but he is no where near the “elite” level QB the Rams thought they were getting! The biggest obstacle to trading/releasing Bradford is his salary….but the Rams could take a QB at 2, expecting to groom him this year and then dump Bradford after the season, or work a trade for him before the season starts! It’s not quite as preposterous as you make it seem!
May 7th, 2014 at 10:04 am
Manziel would fit perfectly in the NFC west division. Fisher is also the perfect coach for characters like Manziel. They may pass on him but I guarantee you they are having extensive debates internally. Faulk even thinks they should draft Johnny.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:05 am
The Rams could be scary this year
May 7th, 2014 at 10:13 am
Rams save 22 million cap dollars by cutting Bradford. Nearly all of his 50 million guaranteed money has already been paid. Mike Glennon – 70 million dollars + injuries = Sam Bradford. Les Snead, nor Jeff Fisher drafted Sam Bradford. Rams also have 10 straight losing seasons. Sam Bradford’s shortened 7 game season last year consisted of 3 games against Hou, Jax, and Atl, in which he put up 9 TDs to just 1 int. This means that in games that were not played against the 3 worst teams in the NFL, he managed just 5 TDs to 3 INT. The Rams were actually a better team (4-5) after Bradford was injured.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:14 am
I dont see anything nonsensical about taking arguably the best QB in the draft as an insurance policy if Bradford turns out to have another injury riddled or subpar year.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:24 am
The entire NFC West can be scary this year.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:32 am
Per the 2014 NFL Draft Value Board, the Rams’ 2nd pick of the draft is worth 2600 points and the Bucs’ 7th is worth 1600 points. Therefore to trade up to the Rams pick they would have to add at a minimum 1,000 points, the same value of the 16th pick in the draft. Perhaps their 2nd round pick which is worth 520 points plus maybe next year’s 2nd rounder will do it but that probably wouldn’t even be enough to get the trade done.
Maybe they could throw in Glennon to back up Bradford and save either this year’s or next year’s second round pick, and throw in a 4th rounder?
May 7th, 2014 at 10:32 am
All the smokescreens and drama are for the benefit of the media, agents and fans. A professional NFL organization is not going to bite a baited hook because some “guru” puts a story out.
Each team has it’s board and they most always stay true to it.
May 7th, 2014 at 10:35 am
You know who will not be scary this year?… The Bucs
May 7th, 2014 at 10:40 am
All rumors must be true just like that one about the Bucs actively looking to trade Glennon for a 2nd round pick. Nobody in the media ever gets fed misinformation from sources looking to misdirect other teams
May 7th, 2014 at 10:42 am
The picture you post reminds me of
Mad Magazine’s “What Me Worry”
May 7th, 2014 at 10:43 am
These teams are playing a chess match, hoping they can make perception the accepted reality come draft time
May 7th, 2014 at 10:49 am
so now you are evaluating other team needs to bring up johnnymancrush.
(Deleted rest of comment). Dude, it should be obvious here to every reader every day for the past 5 1/2 years that Joe is biased and has strong opinions. Duh! Your silly lectures are ludicrous. “Editorials” and opinion writing were the backbones of newspapers for many decades, and then newspapers got it in their collective heads that alleged unbiased news reporting was far more important and entertaining. That attitude has helped run newspapers into the toilet. Joe writes what he wants to write about without regard for the things you’re referencing. THat won’t change.–Joe
May 7th, 2014 at 10:55 am
This is giving me a headache
May 7th, 2014 at 11:00 am
I think Bradford will make an excellent back up. Bradford and Glennon had very comparable stats over 7 games but Bradford was a 4th year 1st overall pick and Glennon a rookie 3rd round pick thrown into a mess of a team. Joe, did Glennon play pretty well last year not considering his draft position? If Glennon played pretty well considering his draft position then Bradford played like junk considering his draft position considering he was 3-4. I’d say Sullivan ran a very bland offense as well.
No, I don’t really think the Rams are in play for Manziel but just giving Joe a hard time. The only real differences are that Bradford was selected to be the face of a franchise being selected 1st overall while Glennon was selected as a possible future if things worked out that way, he just got thrown in right away. If you look at what Bradford has, or in his case hasn’t, accomplished as a Ram then it wouldn’t be far fetched to see them looking at a QB. He gets the constant excuses like Freeman used to get, he just isn’t as much of a head case. The Rams just have to stick with him because of his contract and because Fisher’s job rides on Bradford.
May 7th, 2014 at 11:15 am
First pick in the draft will be…Blake Bortles.
May 7th, 2014 at 11:18 am
@Buccaneer Bonzai
That would be what the Bucs are dreaming for. Any of the questionable QB’s that get selected before #7 only pushes better players to them.
May 7th, 2014 at 11:43 am
Joe, I for one enjoyed reading this article about a team ahead of the Bucs in the draft. Its offers some interesting insight.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Here’s a scenario that would make me laugh even harder than if Manziel was there at 7 and the Bucs pass on him.
Scenario : Manziel is there at 7 and the Bucs draft him. Then proceed to shop him around during the draft to the teams that we’re hoping he might fall out of the top 10. Then they find a taker and Manziel is gone. Just like that.
Would that scenario make you cry Joe? Being all excited jumping up and down. In the middle of typing a fresh new article about it and WHAMMO the Bucs trade Manziel away during the draft.
It has happened before.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:13 pm
Robert6 you sir are seriously always b!tching about every article on here… Are you on your period 365 days a year? Do everyone a favor and either quit crying, quit commenting, or be positive for once! Is it that hard for you to do that?
I get that everyone on here is a passionate Bucs fan and has their own opinions(some are quite hilarious and some make absolutely no sense whatsoever and some are still thinking it’s the same NFL from when Gruden and Dungy were here smh you know who you are!) but always being negative about EVERYTHING can’t be healthy… You act like Joe can convince Lovie and Licht to dump Glennon on any team and draft Manziel with their first pick.. Just ridiculous
I know some of you will scream it’s just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many articles about Manziel… Okay so? It’s FREE and it’s content about a player that the Bucs could possibly take to be our future “Franchise QB” if you don’t like to read about him then skip the damn article? Some will say…
“Ya but if you don’t like our comments skip them” “We have a freedom of speech to say whatever we want” “If Joe can keep posting articles about him then we can continue to post comments about hating it” Blah blah blah
Sounds like a waste of time to read the article then comment about how much he posts on the subject to me(it’s probably also a waste for me to type ANY of this as well 🙂 )… Be POSITIVE… We got a new GM a new Coach(THANK GOD) new jerseys(meh growing on me) a whole bunch of new players to root for and got rid of MOST(Koenen I’m looking at you!) of the overpaid players on the team as well… I’m not defending Joe either I just would rather see the Robert6 and SAMCRO/Bruce(the fact you got busted as Bruce cracks me up lol) of the world actually be excited for something Bucs related for once!!
GO BUCS!!
May 7th, 2014 at 12:18 pm
BTW I understand the humorous ones and think they are okay and funny(Joe’s crush and Joe loves him some Man-ziel 🙂 ) just the extremely depressing hate filled ones that eventually get deleted are the ones I’m talking about
May 7th, 2014 at 12:18 pm
It’s been fun watching Joe rationalize and justify his way into hoping beyond hope that the Bucs draft his JFF. There has been a little bit of objectivity, but it’s mostly been attempts to twist and turn every piece of information into his vain hope coming to pass in the draft. This year has been a strange, somewhat twisted, monomaniacal obsession with his JFF on this site that has left fans with an odd disquieting feeling that something just…isn’t…right.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:36 pm
Phillip says:
“it’s probably also a waste for me to type ANY of this as well”
After reading you’re rant, I pulled this from it. I concur.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:37 pm
“monomaniacal obsession with his JFF on this site that has left fans with an odd disquieting feeling that something just…isn’t…right.”
LMFAO!
May 7th, 2014 at 12:41 pm
@Bucs1987
Lol it’s not a rant it’s a plea for people to be positive and to still make jokes!
Because if we do draft Manziel then we are gonna have to get used to these articles! 🙂
May 7th, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Phillip if they draft Manziel. The JBF fans that are tired of the wave after wave after wave of JF articles are probably going to get hit with a tsunami.
I hope they have their life vests on.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
@Phillip
Wait, you’re not used to them yet? What will make it worse, actually drafting Manziel or someone else drafting him and him being successful? I’m torn lol
May 7th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Phillip,
Take your own advice. If you don’t like robert6’s comment just skip right over them.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:54 pm
If they draft Manziel, Joe will likely retire this site and become CEO of the Johnny Manziel Official Fan Club. He will get interviews on PFT, PTI, ESPN, etc, and we can nickname him the Rock Star in memory of his favorite GM of all time.
May 7th, 2014 at 12:56 pm
^^^lol
May 7th, 2014 at 1:34 pm
Heisman Trophy winners in the NFL over last 25 years:
Record: 159-203 (.439)
Avg career length: 3.8 years
Pro Bowls: 3 (Cam has 2, Bob Griffin has 1)
Super Bowls: 0
Please let someone else draft this schlub, I am literally sick to my stomach of this nonsense.
May 7th, 2014 at 3:59 pm
They have no shot of dealing Bradord. No one is taking on the risk that he could be there for 1 year and then leave in FA (he will not be getting tagged I would imagine). The Rams have the sunk cost of drafting him, they will give him another year to see what he can do. He was playing very well pre-injury last year, and with their defense they only need solid QB play.