Cleveland quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains said a text he received from Johnny Manziel on the opening night of the NFL draft last Thursday helped get the ball rolling toward the Browns picking the former Texas A&M star quarterback.
During a radio interview on "SportsTalk with Bo Mattingly" on ESPN Arkansas 96.3, Loggains said that as Manziel slid down the draft board, he sent him a text that read: "I wish you guys would come get me. Hurry up and draft me because I want to wreck this league together."
Added Loggains: "When I got that text, I forwarded it to the owner (Jimmy Haslam) and to the head coach (Mike Pettine). I'm like, 'This guy wants to be here. He wants to be part of it.' As soon as that happened, Mr. Haslam said, 'Pull the trigger. We're trading up to go get this guy.'"
The Browns eventually traded up from No. 26 to No. 22, sending the Philadelphia Eagles a third-round pick as well to select the former Heisman Trophy winner.
Loggains said the Browns actually tried to move up to No. 11 with the Titans and No. 16 with the Cowboys in the draft.
"Mr. Haslam and Coach Pettine had called me down to the draft room a couple of times throughout the night, and we had almost made trades with Tennessee and Dallas and backed out,'' he said in the radio interview. " ... We were sitting there, and Coach Pettine keeps texting me, and we're going back and forth and we're going, 'Hey does Dallas take him here? No they won't. Does St. Louis take him at 13?' We knew we had to get in front of the Chiefs (at No. 23) because we knew they would draft him.''
Loggains also said in the interview that Haslam was very high on Manziel, who was the top quarterback on the team's draft board.
"It was Manziel and then everybody else," Loggains said.
