The Cincinnati Bengals announced that it has released former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron on Wednesday.
McCarron signed with the Bengals practice squad back in September and after starting quarterback Joe Burrow was lost for the season with a hand injury, McCarron was promoted to the backup role behind Jake Browning.
Appearing in two games in 2023, McCarron completed 4-of-5 passes for 19 yards.
Before this season, McCarron spent a season in the XFL with the St. Louis Battlehawks where he led the league in passing yards, completion percentage and passer rating. Battlehawks head coach Anthony Becht had stated last month that he hopes McCarron would return to the team for the 2024 season.
“The original plan for AJ was to convince him to play with the Battlehawks,” Becht said. “HE wanted to get back in the (NFL). He wanted to get that chance. He did both of those things. He took care of business. He did his part. He came into the league, was a really good quarterback, got to go to the Bengals active roster — all those things were great.
“SO no it’s just, OK, what are we going to do this year? I want all those guys back. Nick Tiano won us a game against Vegas. We really like him. We think he’s a starter in this league. Manny Wilkins, our third guy last year, we think he can win in this league, so there’s going to be competition across the board. Everybody’s going to have to earn it.
“We’ll know that quarterback room, what that’ll look like here in a couple of weeks. AJ’s taking some time with his family. We can start talking about what that looks like, but regardless of who’s playing quarterback, we like our room from last year. A lot of teams added some new pieces. We have consistency. We like what we got. Another year in this system, guys get better.”
The Battlehawks are preparing for its first season as a part of the new UFL.
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