Johnny Manziel had a fine season following the nonstop tumult that hounded him during the spring, but some late faltering may have hurt his draft stock. If so, a return to Texas A&M for Johnny Football shouldn't be ruled out.
In an interview with Scott Van Pelt, Manziel seemed non-committal about jumping to the pros "I'm going to send my draft evaluation in. See how that comes back. From there I think I'll sit down with coach (George) Whitfield, coach (Kevin) Sumlin, coach (Jake Spavital) and have talks with coach (Kliff) Kingsbury and my family. It's all about being ready."
After winning the Heisman Trophy as a freshman, and leading the Aggies past Alabama on the Crimson Tide's field, Johnny Football's sequel was very impressive, although not worthy of the original. His passing numbers were on par with the freshman campaign; he has thrown for 3,537 yards and 32 touchdowns with 13 interceptions (up four from a season ago).
On the ground, though, Manziel was less explosive. A year ago he ran 201 times for 1,410 yards and a whopping 21 touchdowns. This year he was more economical, carrying the rock 121 times for 654 yards and eight scores.
Manziel is listed at six feet, one inch and 200 lbs., making him small for an NFL quarterback, and especially for a signal caller so reliant on running. Secondly, concerns about his character are rampant, although he seemed to have learned a lot through his media trials and tribulations.
"It never really got to the way I thought it might or try to tell myself that it would. It finally came to a point where I wanted to take the attention off of me and try to shift this focus to my teammates. I felt like that's what need to be done. Time to shut it down and get focused on this football season. And that's what we needed to do at the time. The best way to stay away from all of it was to get off Twitter, just slow things down and get back to being a more reserved person, I guess."
If the myriad questions damage his stock to the point that he dips below a first round projection, Manziel told Dan Patrick that he'd likely return to college.
"I don't know what I would do. It would be a decision I would have to make with my family, and see what was best for me. It would probably mean returning to A&M another year. ... I still have a big choice ahead either way."
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