Manziel takes his first team reps at Ticats training camp

A small step forward for Johnny Football.

Johnny Manziel took his first team reps at the Hamilton TigerCats’ training camp Tuesday. The former Heisman Trophy winner spent much of the first two days of workouts watching incumbent Jeremiah Masoli and the other quarterbacks call and execute plays.

Once again, Manziel, 25, threw to receivers prior to position drills. But this time, he took snaps against a full defence as well as during the seven-on-seven session at Ron Joyce Stadium.

“The first day I came out and was just looking over everything, learning from the guys, just kind of watching to see how they progress through things,” Manziel said. “Now we’re just kind of piecing it together, a couple of team reps here, more seven-onseven reps so you see it without the pass rush and the whole thing coming together.

“(On Wednesday) we’ll take some more team reps and get more live reps because at the end of the day we’re pretty close to the first time we’ll get out there and actually play.”

Hamilton hosts the Grey Cupchampion Toronto Argonauts on June 1 in the first exhibition game for both teams.

The ‘12 Heisman Trophy winner completed his first two passes of the team segment with the second offensive unit. The sixfoot, 210-pound Manziel rolled out to his left on his second play then threw the completion.