Houston Texans (1)

With Bill O’Brien taking over the head coaching title he will be bringing with him a pro-style offense so I don’t believe they will look to draft Manziel, most likely they will be choosing between Blake Bortles of UCF and Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville. Last season they had major problems with the QB position, I especially remember the game vs. the Seahawks when Matt Schaub threw a pick-6 in the final minutes of the game, which was an epically bad decision and sealed the Texans fate of being one of the worst teams. The Texans have a bunch of offensive weapons; Arian Foster, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels, DeAndre Hopkins, who would all help Manziel or whoever they decide to draft transition to the NFL.

St. Louis Rams (2, 13)
The Rams have a very interesting decision they will need to make about Sam Bradford and how or if he fits into their future plans. With him being drafted in 2010 he was lucky enough to be the last 1st overall pick to sign a huge contract ($78 million over 6 years) before every stepping foot on the field for his team. This all changed when the NFL renegotiated their Collective Bargaining Agreement that year and then introduced a rookie pay scale in time for the 2011 draft. This was designed so teams who drafted poorly wouldn’t be taking huge cap hits on players who didn’t meet expectations. The best example of this was the JaMarcus Russell fiasco; he was taken by the Oakland Raiders number 1 overall in the 2007 and proceeded to become one of the legendary busts in draft history. With all that being said the Rams should have taken Robert Griffin III with the 2nd overall in the 2012 draft and cut Bradford but they decided Sam was their man and traded the pick to the Washington Redskins for a kings ransom. I’m not sold on Sam Bradford being the QB to rebuild the “Greatest Show on Turf” around, with that being said the Rams need to upgrade their receiving corps. In 2013 their TE led the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns; this should never be the case unless your team has Jimmy Graham. I’ll elaborate on this in another piece but the 2014 draft is deep with WR’s and the Rams need to get one of these playmakers.

Jacksonville Jaguars (3)
The last remotely good Jags QB was David Garrard who didn’t even put up that great of numbers or win many playoff games. Chad Henne or Blaine Gabbert is not the answer for former Seahawk’s D coordinator Gus Bradley at the QB position. They need to find a dynamic, playmaker to lead their offense. With the Jaguars finishing 31st in total offense and 22nd in passing offense they definitely need to overhaul their offense.

Cleveland Browns (4, 26)
Since 1990 the Browns have only won 1 playoff game and have only been in the playoffs 2 times. It’s sad to see this once great franchise struggle so badly these last couple of decades but they have a pretty good core of young, talented players. A lightning rod like Johnny Football will instantly bring attention back to the franchise. The Browns actually have some decent talent in the passing game. Josh Gordon enjoyed a breakout season in 2013 despite having the likes of Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and Brian Hoyer as his QB. This team has some good young players to build around but are in need of a leader like Manziel.

Dallas Cowboys (16)
This is one of the least likely landing spots for Johnny Football but I believe this would be the best situation for his career and personality. First Johnny was born and raised in Tyler, Texas which is about 100 miles east of Dallas, second he starred at Texas A&M and finally Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, loves having the spotlight on his team and drafting Manziel will bring unprecedented attention to the team. I don’t think Tony Romo is the answer for the Cowboys at the QB position, every season he puts up very good numbers but always seems to have one or two big games in which he makes some terrible play or plays in the 4th quarter that lose his team the game. In 2013 the Denver and Green Bay stick out to me as the Romo fails in the 4th quarter games. I just don’t think he has the leadership ability or moxie to lead the Cowboys on a championship run. With Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, DeMarco Murray and Miles Austin (pre Kardashian curse) on the offense any QB should be able to put up good-great numbers. There are 2 problems with the plan of drafting Manziel; first Dallas would have to make a trade with the Rams to move up to the 2nd overall pick and hope that the Texans do the smart thing and take Manziel, second Tony Romo has a massive contract which runs through 2019 and pays him around $18 million annually. When I looked at Romo’s contract I did a double take, I thought there is no way Dallas is paying this guy close to $20 million a year to be their QB but as it turns out they indeed are. His base salary goes from $1.5 million with a bonus of $5 million and incentives worth about $5.2 million for a cap hit of around a total of $11.2 million in 2013 to $13.5 million with a $5 million bonus and $3.275 million in incentives with a cap hit around an astounding $22 million in 2014. This means Tony Romo will have the 2nd highest cap hit in the NFL behind Jay Cutler in 2014. With Dez Bryant set to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2014 season I would want as much cap space as I could possibly have to bring him back. Plus with Tony turning 34 in a couple months’ time I would start to think about his value to the franchise in relation to how much he makes per season. In a perfect world the Cowboys would draft Manziel, have him be the backup for the 2014 season and learn the offense, and be ready to take over the primary QB position in 2015. This would save the Cowboys about $20 million in dead cap space if they decide to cut Romo after the 2014 season as oppose to cutting him before the 2014 season. In the end I doubt this scenario will come to fruition for the Cowboys but it would be their best chance at winning a Super Bowl.