Troy Aikman hasn't played for the Dallas Cowboys since he retired after the 2000 NFL season, but the FOX analyst still keeps a close eye on the team and thinks it will be the landing spot for either Johnny Manziel or Robert Griffin III.
Troy Aikman is probably right to think the Cowboys will sign Johnny Manziel or RG3
Aikman says addressing the backup QB spot is “really, really important” for the Cowboys and Manziel or Griffin are the guys that likely get the job.
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The pair of Heisman Trophy winners and first-round picks both look destined for the open market in 2016 after tumultuous years in 2015. For Manziel, the year featured rehab, partying videos and trips to and from the bench with the Cleveland Browns. For Griffin, an injury in preseason ended his time as a player for Washington and he spent the season watching Kirk Cousins from the sideline.
“I believe, as I sit here today, either Johnny Manziel or Robert Griffin III will be in Dallas as a backup,” Aikman told Sports Illustrated’s Maggie Gray on Tuesday.
While he didn't mention Manziel or Griffin in an appearance on NFL Network's NFL HQ, he did discuss the injury concerns of Tony Romo, who missed all but four games during the 2015 season.
“Well I think the collarbone certainly is a concern,” Aikman said. “He’s broken it now three times in, I believe, the last five years ... The real concern is that this has been an outstanding offensive line the last two years in protecting him and he has not taken a lot of hits.
“This last year he broke it twice and he wasn’t hit very much, so he has missed some time, and as a guy who continues to get older, and I certainly know as a quarterback, it’s harder to come back and it’s harder to play week in and week out as you get older. So what they do this year at the backup position is going to be really, really important, but when Romo is healthy, he’s as good as anybody in the league.”
Romo will turn 36 in April and led the Cowboys to a 3-1 record, despite throwing five touchdowns and seven interceptions in his four starts. Cowboys backups weren't nearly as successful with Matt Cassel posting a 1-6 record, while Kellen Moore and Brandon Weeden lost all of their five combined starts.
In the offseason, Romo is expected to have surgery, adding a plate to his left collarbone to improve its stability, but even then, he will be one of the NFL's oldest starting quarterbacks in 2016. Only six quarterbacks older than Romo started a game in 2015, and that included Matt Hasselbeck, who was forced into action by an injury to Andrew Luck.
Griffin’s 26th birthday is coming in February and Manziel turned 23 in January, so both could have lengthy NFL careers ahead if they are able to rebound from recent struggles. And the Cowboys could provide the stage for one of them:
Johnny Manziel
The Browns seem thoroughly sick of Manziel’s inability to behave, even if the team is pretending as though it could still give him another chance. The new brass in Cleveland, including head coach Hue Jackson and executive vice president Sashi Brown have made it clear that Manziel’s partying won’t be tolerated, and new videos from Tuesday make it seem like he doesn’t care much to stop.
It’s even more difficult to imagine that a return to his home state Texas, where he first became a superstar at Texas A&M, would make his partying days a thing of the past.
But unlike Griffin, Manziel actually played in 2015 and didn’t do too poorly. While he posted just a 2-4 record in six starts with the Browns, the team was 1-9 without him and he finished with seven touchdown passes, five interceptions and a 57.8 completion percentage. Those aren’t tremendous numbers, but it was evidence of progress made from his rookie year when he completed just 51.4 percent of his passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Jerry Jones has always been rumored to love the idea of Manziel in Dallas, and even had a draft card with the Heisman winner's name on it before it was "snatched" from his hand by his son, Stephen Jones. While Jerry Jones refuted that report, he didn't deny that Manziel was a player he wanted on the Cowboys just two years ago during the 2014 NFL Draft.
Likelihood Manziel signs with the Cowboys: 8/10
Robert Griffin III
While the Browns are acting as though a decision about Manziel’s future still needs to be made, Washington has made it clear that Griffin is done with the team four years after it traded up to select him in the 2012 NFL Draft.
He validated the team’s investment by winning Offensive Rookie of the Year honors and leading the team to the playoffs, but a torn ACL began a downward spiral that ended with his eventual benching. Cousins stepped up to complete 69.8 percent of his passes in 2015, leading the NFL, along with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions to lead Washington to an NFC East title.
The problem with signing Griffin is that its more of a reclamation project as a football player, while Manziel’s issues mostly revolve on his problems off the field. In seven starts and nine games in 2014, Griffin threw just four touchdown passes with six interceptions and his injury history suggests that the running ability that made him so dangerous as a rookie and as a Heisman winner at Baylor is something that won’t continue to be a big part of his game from now on.
While Jones hasn’t been as tied to Griffin as he has Manziel, he did admit in 2014 that he’s a fan of RG3 and was “just floored” by the performance of the former No. 2 overall pick in a game against the Cowboys in 2012.
Likelihood Griffin signs with the Cowboys: 5/10
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Timeline: The sad, downward spiral for RG3 in Washington
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