Kyle Shanahan Admits to Liking Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo Way More Than Johnny Manziel Before the 2014 Draft

The 2014 NFL Draft had five quarterbacks taken in the first two rounds: Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr, and Jimmy Garoppolo. You could make an argument for almost flipping the order, with Derek Carr at the top, and the unproven Jimmy Garoppolo being a better risk at this point than Bortles and the injured Bridgewater, with Manziel of course behind all of them.

Kyle Shanahan, the current Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator and presumptive head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was the Cleveland offensive coordinator back in 2014. Shanahan has boldly admitted that he liked Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo as the top two quarterbacks in that draft.

And as we know, the Browns actually selected Johnny Manziel with the 22nd pick in the draft. What happened? Well, Farmer might have selected Manziel for any number of reasons. Remember the homeless man story? And then there was Johnny Manziel texting quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains “I want to wreck this league together.” (To be fair, he technically did wreck things, so no false advertising). Or maybe it was Donald Trump’s endorsement while the draft was ongoing and Manziel was waiting.

San Francisco fans better hope that Shanahan isn’t giving interviews in a decade talking about the other quarterbacks he really liked that his team didn’t draft.