Manziel for the Money

If i'm either Shahid Khan or Wayne Weaver (the owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars), i'm praying to the football gods that Johnny Football falls to the Jags in the upcoming NFL draft. The Jaguars are slated to pick third, and likely only have to worry about the Texans because the Rams already have their quarterback of the future. All football and personnel decisions aside, the Jags need Johnny Manziel in order to increase the monetary value of their organization.

According to a report issued by Forbes at the beginning of the 2013 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars were next to last in overall team value. Their recent on-field performance has done nothing to help their cause. Over the past few seasons the Jags have been fully enrolled at St. Ruggles University. 

This porous performance has led to a decrease in the number of fans willing to pay for tickets to watch their team. Last season Jacksonville ranked in the bottom five for attendance. This costs the team some serious cash flow as ticket sales comprise the number one revenue source for NFL teams. Manziel could help drastically alleviate this issue because at the very least he'll at least pack the stands for whatever team he plays for.
According to the site quoted above, the next most important source of revenue comes from merchandising. You need not look any further than the most recent collegiate mega-star turned NFL players to see why J. Football would bring home the bacon. Tim Tebow blew up as he led the Denver Broncos to a playoff victory in his second season, after sitting his first year. But before he blew up during Tebowmania, before he even played a down of NFL football, Tim Tebow had the highest selling jersey in all of the league. It's almost a certainty that Johnny Manziel's jersey would achieve similar levels of success.

Last season the Jaguars did not have a single player in the top 25 NFL jerseys sold. Compare that to the Cowboys, who had four players make the list. Referring back to the the list published by Pellegrino and Associates, third on the list of important factors for creating revenue in NFL is advertising. Jacksonville's small media market does them no favors in generating ad revenue for their team, but neither does the fact that they haven't had a marquee player in years. 

The marketing department down there would salivate over all the promotional strategies and potential endorsements that would be able to engage people across the 50 states. Johnny Manziel could bring the Jaguars national attention for something other than their awful on-field performance over the past few seasons. You already know, that from day one of training camp, multiple national media outlets would arrive on scene in Florida.

Of course, from a purely football standpoint, drafting Johnny Manziel appears to be anything but the slam dunk it is from a business point of view. For starters, many scouts have their trepidations as to whether Manziel can develop into the franchise caliber qb an organization expects from a top three pick. 

Then comes the issue of the excessive attention J. Football would get compared to his teammates, aka the Tebow/Manning/Brady effect. This can rub many of them the wrong way and lead to friction in the locker room. So from this perspective, maybe another pick would serve the Jaguars best. But if the goal of their owners is to make money, than Johnny Manziel is what they need.