NFL Notes: Johnny Manziel, Eagles & Patriots

Johnny Manziel

A friend of former Browns QB Johnny Manziel said he knows he’s “hit rock bottom” and plans to take the next year to turn things around.

“He knows he’s hit rock bottom and he’s giving himself a year to get sober and get ready for football,” the friend said, via the PageSix.com. “He wants to play again. He really wants to turn things around and make people proud of him again. It’s not going to end this way. He really wants to make that effort. He knows what he’s gifted with. . . . The spotlight got to him.”

Their source added Manziel is still going to clubs because he’s trying to maintain his social life.

“He doesn’t want to sit at home in his hotel room,” said their source. “He enjoys seeing his friends. Some of them are in nightlife and entertainment.”

Eagles

• Phil Sheridan points out that have Allen Barbre working at right tackle and rookie Isaac Seumalo as their first-team left guard, which could be the fallout from Lane Johnson’s potential suspension.

Patriots

Patriots president Jonathan Kraft explained their logic for trading DE Chandler Jones to the Cardinals during the offseason.

“We’ll end up being pretty close to the [salary] cap this year, I’m sure. Whatever money we don’t use, we roll over,” Kraft during an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub, via ESPN.com. “We use every cap dollar that we can have, but there are just different strategies for how you deploy it. Chandler is a great football player and it will be fun to see him that opening day [Sept. 11]. And Chandler did wonderful things in the community here too; he’s a good man.”

“Obviously, when you have great football players, given the constraints of the salary cap, you want to try to keep all of them. You keep as many as you possibly can, and in some cases you have to make difficult decisions,” Kraft said. “Chandler Jones is a great football player and was an important part of the Patriots for the last [four] years. But you have to look at everything and weigh the amount of capital you’re going to have available and what all your choices are, and how deep your team is at certain positions, and what the value can be for somebody else, and how you can take that value and use it for your own team.

“That’s a good example where we tried to do something that allowed us, looking forward, to take all the assets associated with the team and end up with the best possible scenario in terms of what you could actually have on the club.”