Johnny Manziel's new CFL coach: 'We didn't bring him here to have him sit on the bench'

Traded by Hamilton after five games and zero starts, Manziel looks for playing time in Montreal

Johnny Manziel is looking to impress his new team. USATSI

Five games into his CFL career Johnny Manziel has been traded from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to the Montreal Alouettes. He didn't start a game in Hamilton but that could change in Montreal -- at least to hear Alouettes coach Mike Sherman tell it.

"We didn't bring him here to have him sit on the bench," Sherman said Monday via ESPN.com, a day after Manziel was traded.

The Alouettes host the Edmonton Eskimos on Thursday, which makes it unlikely that Manziel would see any action after just three practice days with his new team. But never say never.

"This is quite a short week," Sherman said. "We'll just see how the week plays out. I don't want to put added pressure on him and I want everybody else to get ready to play. We'll just play it out during the course of the week."

Manziel, who didn't play a single snap behind Jeremiah Masoli in Hamilton said he didn't request a trade and says he trusts Sherman, who coached him early in his career at Texas A&M, "to put me in a position to succeed." 

"I believe ... that when I'm ready, they'll give me a chance," Manziel continued. "Until then, I'm going to continue to come in and work like I need to work to try to catch up at a rapid pace."

Manziel, 25, was added to the Tiger-Cats roster before the season but could never unseat Masoli. The lack of playing time wasn't  originally considered a huge issue; Tiger-Cats coach June Jones said last month that Manziel should be in the NFL, where he last played in December 2015.

"I've been pleasantly surprised the last three weeks what a good teammate he is, how smart he is, how he sees the game," Jones said at the time. "He should be playing in the National Football League, and I believe he will when he gets through with us."

But the Tiger-Cats are now done with Manziel and he's still in the CFL while the NFL remains a dream. He signed a two-year deal, which means he won't be eligible to return to the United States to play football until 2020 (assuming the Alouettes don't release him).

"It'll take two years," Jones said of Manziel's NFL comeback. "They're [NFL executives, coaches] waiting to see that he's taken care of his off-the-field problems."

Manziel competed in the developmental Spring League earlier this year in an effort to show NFL teams that he's matured during his absence from the game.

"The message that I'm sending is showing up every day and going to meetings," he told reporters after his first Spring League game. "Being engaged in everything that is going on during practice and in the game. I can't control what is going on [with NFL teams' interest] ..."

Despite the lack of playing time, Manziel has said and done all the right things during his first month in the CFL. Now if he can get on the field in Montreal, NFL teams can see if he can still play football like the former Heisman Trophy winner and Browns' first-round pick.