A.J. McCarron has won his grievance against the Cincinnati Bengals and the quarterback is now an unrestricted free agent.
During McCarron's rookie year, the Bengals placed him on the non-football injury list for a shoulder injury they felt he suffered while away from the team. Therefore, he didn't accrue a season toward free agency and was considered a restricted free agent. McCarron argued the injury was wrongly listed as non-football and an independent arbitrator has now agreed, with the 27-year-old quarterback earning unrestricted free agency as a result. Despite attempting just 133 passes in his career, McCarron is expected to get some looks as a potential starter this offseason. The Bengals will now need to find a new backup for Andy Dalton.
On a career-high 131 drop backs in 2015, McCarron posted 0.14 Passing Net Expected Points per drop back, the 12th-best mark among the 46 quarterbacks with at least 100 drop backs that year. He completed 66.4 percent of his 119 pass attempts for 854 yards while throwing 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer