Time for the Cowboys to opt for Johnny Manziel?

Everyone who has followed the Dallas Cowboys progress this season is fully aware that the team is in dire need of a spark and if that spark cannot come from within the roster, it has to come from somewhere.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and perhaps it is time for franchise owner, Jerry Jones, to make a decision he failed to make about a year back. The team’s owner has never hidden the fact that he always wanted to acquire Johnny Manziel and revealed that he was very close to drafting the former Heisman Trophy winner with the No. 16 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. However, the Cowboys took offensive lineman Zack Martin instead.

However, circumstances have changed drastically since then. With 35-year-old Tony Romo unlikely to feature again this season due to his second collarbone injury and no long-term options behind the veteran QB on the depth chart, speculation has mounted that the Cowboys might take their chances on the Cleveland Browns man where his career is going down the drain.

On Tuesday, Jones spoke at great length about Manziel and revealed just how close he came to drafting the young quarterback.

“Do you remember two years ago when we sat there right to the last second on the clock with Manziel? My whole point is, there you are,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan, a CBS Sports Radio station. “That was the whole purpose of doing that. At that particular time, for a first-round pick, I thought that Romo had more time. And if we sat there and worked with Manziel for four or five years, now we all know what’s happened.

“We know the off-the-field issues. But on our board, one of our top five or six picks dropped down to us and it was at the quarterback position, and I absolutely was a vote of one in that room to basically go there. And I understood why.”

Moreover, general consensus is that the Browns could end up cutting their losses and prepared to move on from Manziel. If that were to happen, the Cowboys make sense as a likely new destination. Moreover, the team has had a history of gambling on high-upside players with several off-field issues.

The Cowboys and Browns are both projected to have top picks in the next draft. Dallas have an aging starter while Cleveland could be back to square one which means both franchises could well be drafting near each other.

However, back in 2014, Jones’ son, Stephen convinced his father that Martin was a much better choice but if the opportunity to acquire such a controversial yet talented player presents itself, it is unlikely to see Jerry Jones listen to his son this time around.

“I want you to know that almost as I was handing in the card, it was that close to putting that Manziel card in. It was that close,” Jones said in July 2014. “I looked over to my son, Stephen, our chief executive officer, and I said, ‘I took the right pick.’ … He was the top player by three players on our board at the time that we were sitting there looking at him.”