Troy Aikman had to go and stir things up.
Sitting with SI.com's Maggie Gray, Aikman said he thinks that Robert Griffin III or Johnny Manziel will be a member of the Dallas Cowboys next season.
“I believe as I sit here today that either Johnny Manziel or Robert Griffin III will be in Dallas as a backup,” Aikman told SI.com.
It's hard to get much context from the short quote or the short video on the site. It doesn't appear that Aikman was speaking as a former Cowboys legend who can likely get a private audience with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones whenever he wishes. He seemed like he was making an educated guess more than passing along any inside info. But, again, if anyone in the media knows the ins and outs of the Cowboys, it's probably Aikman.
All that said, would anyone really be that surprised if Jones did something like that?
Griffin and Manziel are both from Texas and were both enormous college stars in the state. Griffin won a Heisman Trophy at Baylor, Manziel won his Heisman at Texas A&M. Griffin won the 2012 NFL offensive rookie of the year award before he blew out his knee in a playoff game he shouldn't have still been in, and his career hasn't been the same. Manziel's career has never really taken off at all, due to some off-field issues and some on-field limitations.
Griffin has already cleared out his locker in Washington. Even though he's not technically a free agent, he's due a base salary of more than $16 million next season and didn't play a down in 2015. He'll be free to go. Griffin stumbled badly after a great start in Washington and it's clear he needs a change of scenery. Maybe Dallas would be a good place for that, but he might also want that second chance in a more sedate NFL environment.
Manziel's future is anyone's guess. Manziel has never really shown he's all that committed to being a professional. The crowd that claims Manziel is a grown man and can do whatever he wants on his down time fails to realize how much time and effort is required to be a good starting NFL quarterback. Manziel has shown brief glimpses of the talent that made him a first-round pick, but he still has things to overcome on the field. It's unclear if Dallas would want to get involved with his off-field act, on top of that. Manziel has already shown an affinity for the Dallas nightlife, as new videos came out this week of him living it up in Dallas over the weekend.
Nobody can ever rule out Jones making some headline-grabbing move, which is why it will be popular to link Dallas to Manziel and Griffin, assuming both become free agents as expected. That might never happen, no matter what Aikman believes. But if either land with the Cowboys, Manziel or Griffin would surely lead a nice, quiet existence as a backup quarterback in a market that never freaks out about its football team.
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