Johnny Manziel and Montreal Alouettes look like ideal CFL marriage

Johnny Manziel did not get on the field for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but a trade to the Montreal Alouettes puts him in the best possible spot to launch his CFL career.

After signing with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats with some fanfare, Johnny Manziel didn’t get on the field as the backup to Jeremiah Masoli. Then on Sunday, he was traded with two other players to the Montreal Alouettes for two players and two draft picks.

Going a little further Pro Football Talk reported the Alouettes wanted Manziel for awhile, dating back to trying to get Hamilton to trade them his rights before he signed. He will reunite in Montreal with head coach Mike Sherman, who recruited Manziel to Texas A&M before he would win the Heisman Trophy in 2012 under a new head coach in Kevin Sumlin.

The Alouettes are 1-4 and in last place in the CFL’s East Division, as they’ve scored a league-low 69 points to go with the league’s worst rush offense and the most turnovers in the league. Injuries at quarterback have played a big role in that ineptitude.

Starter Drew Willy suffered his second injury of the season during last Saturday’s loss to Calgary, as he left the game with a hand injury. Backup Jeff Matthews is already out 4-6 weeks with a foot injury, which forced third-stringer Matt Shiltz to play most of the game against the Stampeders.

Montreal’s next game is Thursday night against the Edmonton Eskimos. It would be a tall task for Manziel to learn the entire playbook in three days, practice with new teammates and be able to play functionally well. But the Alouettes did tease his looming debut at home against Edmonton.

https://twitter.com/MTLAlouettes/status/1021182545868750848

With Matthews out, Willy seeming likely to miss some time and Shiltz hardly a proven commodity, Manziel has a path to playing time pretty quickly in Montreal. As the Alouettes try to at least get some sort of buzz and fill their stadium during a season that’s going bad, they’d have nothing to lose by getting Manziel on the field (and maybe even starting him) at some point.

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If “Johnny Football” is every going to take Canada, Montreal is the ideal place to serve as the launch point over the rest of this season.