Johnny Manziel

[Rich]

I gotta believe Larry Tannenbaum would do anything to try and sign Johnny Football. Tannenbaum looks at what Giovinco did for TFC and he's gotta figure the Argonauts need their own equivalent. Giovinco gave TFC (and MLS) a certain legitimacy -- in the eyes of some casual fans -- that they didn't have before. He singlehandedly raised the profile of the team in this town, and as an added bonus, he delivered on the field and helped the team win a lot of games.

It's highly unlikely Johnny would be as successful on the field as Giovinco was, but you can be damn sure casual fans would be talking about the Argos again if they signed him. I think it would dovetail nicely with all the people curious about the tailgating, and honestly I think they could sell out the joint if they did it, at least for the first few games.

There's also a good football reason to go after Manziel: Cody Fajardo. Any system you built for Johnny would also be perfect for Fajardo. One of the reason teams are reluctant to go with a read/option style is that QBs get hurt too much when they carry the ball that much. But bring a coach in to commit to such a system -- and I think Tom Clements would love to work some kind of read option hybrid up here -- then you just plug in the great athletes at QB: Manziel, Fajardo, even LeFevour fits the bill but maybe they could find a rookie upgrade.

Having said all this I'd be willing to bet some NFL team is going to take a flyer on Manziel. And I'm not sure there's another possibly-available "name" QB that could stir up that kind of interest up here. Maybe they could reunite Kaepernick and Fajardo :-)?

[Rich]

Wow, if the report is true that Chris Jones worked him out, then maybe Johnny really is in play. Maybe Tannenbaum is wining and dining him as we speak, introducing him to Drake and showing him how much good "clean" fun he could have in Toronto (answer: a lot). Maybe that's what this whole delay's about so they can announce Clements and Manziel at the same time and blow the lid off this town.

[marcwagz]

Wow, if the report is true that Chris Jones worked him out, then maybe Johnny really is in play. Maybe Tannenbaum is wining and dining him as we speak, introducing him to Drake and showing him how much good "clean" fun he could have in Toronto (answer: a lot). Maybe that's what this whole delay's about so they can announce Clements and Manziel at the same time and blow the lid off this town.

Chris Jones is firing back now though saying he didn't because that would violate Hamilton's negotiation list.

He does seem overly sensitive about the matter though, saying he might sue...