{"id":59527,"date":"2019-02-27T18:45:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T23:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=59527"},"modified":"2021-05-30T14:02:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T18:02:23","slug":"best-aaf-team-fits-for-johnny-manziel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/02\/27\/best-aaf-team-fits-for-johnny-manziel\/","title":{"rendered":"Best AAF Team Fits for Johnny Manziel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Texas A&amp;M superstar <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/ManzJo00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Johnny Manziel<\/a> <\/strong>is back on the open market. Manziel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/johnny-manziel-cut-from-canadian-football-league-after-violating-contract\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">violated the terms of his CFL contract<\/a> and was subsequently released, and the former Heisman winner is aiming to play football in America once again. Manziel won\u2019t land an NFL gig, but he could latch on with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/aaf\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alliance of American Football<\/a>. The AAF is always looking for developmental players, and Manziel\u2019s presence would put fans in the seats. Of course, he wouldn\u2019t be a fit for every roster, so which teams are best suited to land the polarizing quarterback?<\/p>\n<h1>AAF Best Fits for Johnny Manziel<\/h1>\n<h2>San Antonio Commanders<\/h2>\n<p>This is the obvious one. San Antonio currently sits at 1-2 in large part due to the underwhelming play of quarterback <strong>Logan Woodside<\/strong>. Through three games, Woodside is completing just 51% of his passes for 629 yards, two touchdowns, and five interceptions. San Antonio has a decent defense, but the subpar quarterback play has drastically hindered the Commanders\u2019 overall success. Nobody knows how much Manziel can give to a team, but it can\u2019t hurt San Antonio to give it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Manziel signing in San Antonio would be something of a homecoming. The 26-year old first appeared on the national radar when he took over as the starting quarterback for Texas A&amp;M. Located just three hours away from his former campus, San Antonio would surely welcome Manziel with open arms. For a league as young as the AAF, teams do need to think about how to establish a local fanbase. Manziel could easily do that while also providing a probable upgrade to the quarterback position.<\/p>\n<h2>Atlanta Legends<\/h2>\n<p>The Atlanta Legends need something to root for. After having their head coach and offensive coordinator quit prior to the season, Atlanta <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/27\/atlanta-legends-offensive-coordinator-rich-bartel-resigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lost their latest offensive coordinator<\/a> after Week Three. The Legends are the <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/25\/week-three-aaf-power-rankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">worst team in the league<\/a> and quarterback <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/SimmMa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Simms<\/a><\/strong> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2019\/02\/24\/aaf-week-three-quarterback-rankings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">genuine nuisance<\/a> to watch. Manziel can\u2019t fix everything wrong with this team, but he can put fans in the seats.<\/p>\n<p>The only reason this isn\u2019t more likely is that it\u2019s hard to imagine Manziel wanting to place his reputation on the Legends. Manziel still wants to play in the NFL, and the best way to do this is by putting up some good tape. He won\u2019t be able to do that in Atlanta, as the team has no offensive line, wide receivers, or running backs. Additionally, if Atlanta wanted a gimmick to get fans interested in the game, they would\u2019ve already started homegrown hero <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MurrAa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Murray<\/a><\/strong>. The Legends are a mess, but Manziel would make them somewhat watchable.<\/p>\n<h2>San Diego Fleet<\/h2>\n<p>Even more so than the Commanders, the San Diego Fleet have a quarterback limiting an otherwise impressive roster. <strong>Philip Nelson<\/strong> had a decent game in Week Three, but San Diego is clearly trying to limit his impact on the outcome. Nelson finished Week Three with 193 passing yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. So far on the season, the Rutgers alumnus has completed 55.4% of his passes for 403 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. Not bad production overall, but there\u2019s certainly room for improvement. Should Manziel sign, he should be able to post equal or better production while improving fan turnout.<\/p>\n<h2>Arizona Hotshots<\/h2>\n<p>This only applies if quarterback <strong>John Wolford<\/strong> is out for a while. Wolford is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and Arizona would have no interest in Manziel in a perfect world. However, Wolford suffered an injury midway through Week Three\u2019s contest, forcing him to miss the second half of the game. As of this posting, nobody knows the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n<p>Should Wolford miss extended time, the Hotshots would have to turn to <strong>Trevor Knight<\/strong>. Knight looked bad in his limited time on the field, completing just 47% of his passes for 95 yards. Arizona is one of the AAF\u2019s elite teams and could end up winning it all. However, any hope for a championship goes out the window with Trevor Knight at quarterback. Arizona is the most complete team of these four, and Manziel should be able to keep their championship hopes afloat if Wolford is seriously injured.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"tpvCbsMYTfBd5djzSlRdbA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1016632454\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'tpvCbsMYTfBd5djzSlRdbA',sig:'1ca3dZa6XTzL7TNieWUYdmNxR8qTM7Irlo14d68F4Vw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1016632454',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Manziel is officially a free agent and looks to continue his career in America. Which AAF teams are the best fits for the former Heisman winner?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":59528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4737],"tags":[4626,4633,4627,1330,4650,4629],"class_list":["post-59527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aaf","tag-aaf","tag-arizona-hotshots","tag-atlanta-legends","tag-johnny-manziel","tag-san-antonio-commanders","tag-san-diego-fleet"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}