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Veteran quarterback AJ McCarron is finally set to enter the free agent market after winning his grievance case against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The addition of McCarron to this year's crop of free agent quarterbacks has Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculating that it has the 27-year-old in line to receive a lucrative contract that will hold an average annual salary above Andy Dalton next season.
Article Continues Below“Dalton’s deal averages $16 million per year, and he’ll make $13.9 million this year in salary and workout bonus. McCarron will at least average $16 million on the open market, and he’ll get considerably more than $13.9 million in 2018.”
There is already much reason to believe this will come to fruition given that McCarron has received much interest from several teams in need of a quarterback such as the Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, and even the Minnesota Vikings depending on how their quarterback situation shakes out.
McCarron hasn't played much through his first three years in the league throwing for 920 yards while completing 64.7 percent of his passes for six touchdowns and two interceptions in 10 appearances. The bulk of that came in his rookie campaign where played in seven games with Andy Dalton injured. He also started in the Bengals’ 18-16 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he completed 23-of-41 passes for 212 yards, one touchdown, and an interception.
Despite that, McCarron is an intriguing quarterback that could strive for an opportunity to be the full-time starter for another team. His market should be first impacted by whatever decision that Kirk Cousins makes as he will be the next targeted available quarterback. There will be no shortage of lucrative deals offered his way as each of these teams is looking to finally resolve their dilemmas under center. All of this could foreseeably lead to McCarron being one of the first dominos to fall in free agency.
