Archie Manning crushes Cowboys fans' dreams with recent clarification

The Dallas Cowboys have not had a good season. The 'Boys currently sit at 5-8 and their hopes of making the playoffs are long gone. This season is a wash but fans can always look to the future and while the Cowboys are committed to Dak Prescott for at least a few more years, the 2026 draft might very well be when fans get to see Arch Manning heading for the pros.

Arch, the son of Cooper Manning and grandson of Archie Manning, is in his second year at Texas but he's played just 10 games during his two years with the Longhorns. Most of his playing time has come this season when Texas' starting quarterback Quinn Ewers had to miss time but Arch will also pop into games to make plays from time to time.

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Considering he's a Manning, teams are going to be clamoring for a chance to draft Arch when he enters the draft. When Archie Manning was asked about where he'd want to see his grandson land in the NFL, he said it'd be cool to have him suit up for the Cowboys, or at least that's what the internet would lead you to believe.

In a clip that went viral on TikTok, Archie said that he wants to see his grandson play three years at Texas and then addressed where he'd like to see Arch end up in the pros, "It's funny, nobody's ever asked me that. Right off the bat, if somebody asked me, I'd say Cowboys."

Archie Manning got Cowboys fans excited only to then ruin their hopes and dreams

This, of course, got Cowboys fans all sorts of excited because everyone knows when Archie wants something for one of his family members, he gets it. Eli Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers when they picked him first overall in 2004 and that was Archie's doing so who's to say he wouldn't try to get the Cowboys to take his grandson?

Well, pump the brakes there because Archie Manning then had to ruin everything and clarify that the comments were taken out of context.

"That is something that kind of got out of hand," Manning said. "I was just being nice to a patron. I told him I hoped Arch would play three years of college football, and he said 'And then maybe to the Cowboys?' I said 'That'd be fine with me.' I didn't know he was going to put that on TikTok or whatever, I don't know what TikTok is. I didn't know it was going viral, as they say."

Of course, none of this matters anyway if the Cowboys are semi-competitive in 2025 because it's likely that Arch Manning will be the first player taken in 2026 (or whenever he enters the draft). The Cowboys also would have a tough time getting out of Dak Prescott's contract after giving him a four-year, $240 million extension this past offseason so that throws another wrench into this potential plan.

Guess Cowboys fans will have to wait for the next Manning prodigy.

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