AJ McCarron is going to be the toughest quarterback to figure out in this year’s free agent class.
McCarron, who found out yesterday that he won a grievance with the Bengals and will be an unrestricted free agent next month, has shown enough promise that there might be teams that think he can be a franchise quarterback. He has also played so little that there’s no guarantee he’s even good enough to be an NFL starter.
Some team might get McCarron for a bargain and find out that he’s this year’s Case Keenum: Last year Keenum signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Vikings and had an outstanding season, leading them to the NFC Championship Game.
But some team might also pay McCarron a lot of money and find out that he’s this year’s Mike Glennon: Last year Glennon signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Bears and had a terrible season, getting benched after four games.
So far in his career, McCarron has started three games and played reasonably well: He’s completed 86 of 133 passes, a 64.7 percent completion rate. He has 920 yards career passing yards and 6.9 yards per pass. He has six career touchdown passes and two career interceptions. He has a 93.6 career passer rating. He also started a playoff game and threw a go-ahead touchdown pass with 1:50 remaining, although the Bengals’ defense then allowed the Steelers to march down the field for a game-winning drive. There are reasons to think he’s a promising quarterback, but he hasn’t proven it yet.
In what could be a big year for quarterbacks in free agency, McCarron is the biggest question mark.