During former Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s five-round slip-and-slide into Saturday, a report emerged that McCarron had rubbed teams the wrong way during pre-draft interviews.
That report rubbed McCarron the wrong way.
“It [stinks] that it hurt me like that, but at the same time, I feel like God had a plan,” McCarron told reporters Wednesday, via Coley Harvey of ESPN.com. “Everything’s going to work itself out. I’m happy, and hopefully at the end of the day I’ll get the last laugh.”
For now, teams continue to laugh at McCarron’s belief that multiple teams told him he had a first-round grade, and that he expected to be picked between selections No. 16 and No. 35.
Based on Harvey’s article, it appears that McCarron was a bit more discreet on Wednesday regarding what he was told about when he’d be drafted. And he tried to address the notion that his confidence came across as arrogance.
“I guess when teams met with me, they wanted me to say I’ll be a third-round guy and a mediocre quarterback,” McCarron said. “Maybe I was too honest or something. I’m an honest person and I say what I feel. That’s how I feel about my play. If that turns a team off, then at the end of the day, to me, they didn’t really want you. I was myself.”
The Bengals disagreed, passing on McCarron four times before taking him with the 164th overall pick. If the Bengals hadn’t selected McCarron then and there, it’s unknown how long his free fall would have lasted.