Johnny Manziel, A Wonderlic Wonder Kid

Who said beer drinking frat boys from Texas weren’t smart? According to NFL.com, Johnny Football, Johnny Manziel or JFF (Johnny F***ng Football), whatever name you want to call him, earned a 32 on the “all-important” Wonderlic exam at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis earlier this month. 

Teddy Bridgewater, who’s quiet and unassuming attitude has caught the attention (in a negative way) some in the scouting community, earned a 20 on the same test.

To put this into perspective, let’s take a look at some Wonderlic scores from some of the top quarterbacks drafted in the past.

Colin Kaepernick: 38

Andrew Luck: 37

Aaron Rodgers: 35

Tom Brady: 33

Johnny Manziel: 32

Peyton Manning: 28

Robert Griffin III: 24

Dan Marino: 15

Does this mean much? Not really, as Marino is probably the third-best quarterback of that group behind Manning and Brady. Heck, an argument could even be made that he was a better quarterback than Manning.

Let’s put the Wonderlic in context for a second here.

Go ahead and give your best shot at it right here. Your’s truly scored a 13 of 15 on the test, which would have put me five points higher than Kaepernick himself. Does this mean that I have the intelligence to handle the fluidity and pace of a football game? Nope. Does this mean that Marino was held back on the field because he didn’t know what numbers came next in a set of like numbers? Of course not. Does this mean Johnny Manziel is going to be a better quarterback than Peyton Manning? Maybe if Earth stopped rotating completely.

The reality here is that anyone can use the Wonderlic to make a specific prospect look good or bad. Heck, Frank Gore scored a six on the test prior to the San Francisco 49ers making him a third-round pick. Maybe Gore isn’t going to be a Rhodes Scholar, but he can sure run the football.

On the other hand…

 

 

Sometimes the shoe fits perfectly.

Photo: Andrew Richardson, USA Today