XFL Coaches Pass On Johnny Manziel and Trent Richardson In Draft

In a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday, XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck told the Tampa Bay Times what happened to certain well know players in the XFL draft.

Why weren’t guys like Johnny Manziel, Colin Kaepernick and Trent Richardson on an XFL team? The answer from XFL coaches was simple. Teams are not interested.

“I would argue that the players we have are better than those guys, to be honest with you. Johnny has his own history, and we have coaches from the CFL (Canadian Football League) who have seen him close up. I watched Trent when he was with the Colts, and I watched him when he was with the AAF. He was in the draft pool. Coaches and scouts looked at him and didn’t think he was going to help their team. I think the guys we have on our teams are the best 560 that aren’t playing in the National Football League. “

Oliver Luck

As we know from our in-depth draft coverage, Manziel was not in the XFL draft pool but Trent Richardson was. Richardson was even featured in an XFL video. He was invited and attended one of the XFL Summer Showcases.

Age and a poor showing in the AAF could have played a factor in the XFL coaches’ decisions to pass on Richardson. He was basically a goalline back in the AAF.

Johnny Manziel was said to be on a lot of coaches lists as part of the tier one assigning of QB’s. June Jones had talked about XFL team’s interest in Manziel.

“Johnny Manziel is probably on five lists and was on one of mine.”

Phillip Walker was selected as the Roughnecks tier-one QB. Conner Cook was takin with their first pick in the XFL draft. We assume Jones will add another one or two QB’s before the January training camps begin for depth.

There is still one more shot for Manziel in early January. The league will do one more supplemental draft, we are hearing early January. But if he has not been picked up now, we highly doubt he would be then. That draft is more for cut NFL players and potential college guys.

As for Colin Kaepernick, it was clear from the beginning he was not an option.

” I think his salary demands are way out of our ballpark. He was never really a viable option. ”

So we here at XFL News Hub would like to formally announce that this will probably be the last time we mention Johnny Manziel or Colin Kaepernick in an article. Some of you are very happy about that.

The new XFL 2.0 is pretty clear on its objectives. They are about building names not rehashing old ones.