With three days to go before the NFL draft gets underway, opinions on former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel are all over the map: Some say he’ll go first or second overall, while others don’t think he’ll go in the first round at all.
And then there’s Vance Bedford, the defensive coordinator at Texas, who didn’t offer a prediction about Manziel’s draft prospects but did take to Twitter to say that the way Manziel played in college won’t hold up at the next level.
“Manziel is a top 10 pick by the scouts. I wish him the best. He played backyard ball for 3 years. Now he will have to learn how to be a Qb,” Bedford wrote.
When Bedford got pushback on Twitter, he denied that he was trying to take a shot at Manziel but added, “Spread qbs have struggled in the NFL.”
Why is Bedford offering that opinion right now? Maybe it was just an observation. Maybe as a Texas guy he wanted to take a shot at a Texas A&M guy. Maybe Bedford, who previously coached at Louisville, was trying to take a little shot at Manziel on behalf of former Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who appears to have slipped behind Manziel on NFL draft boards. But it’s worth noting that Bedford never actually coached against Manziel, and so it may be that it’s Bedford who has a lot to learn about what kind of player Manziel is.