The Bills signed AJ McCarron, who played the past four years for the Cincinnati Bengals. Here’s a closer look at the signing:
Grade: B. This deal is hard to judge without knowing the cost, but McCarron offers some upside as a bridge quarterback without the experience of some of the other options on the market.
What it means:cheap youth nfl jerseys This week has been a game of musical chairs for free-agent quarterbacks and teams with openings at the position, and McCarron and the Bills were perhaps the last potential match remaining. While the Bills were never considered suitors for Kirk Cousins, it is unclear whether McCarron was their first choice to fill the veteran role at quarterback or whether there was legitimate interest in Buffalo in Case Keenum, Sam Bradford, Teddy Bridgewater or others who signed elsewhere this week. In McCarron, the Bills get some upside that would not have come with signing an available remaining veteran such as Matt Moore or Derek Anderson. McCarron or not, expect the Bills try to trade up and draft a quarterback in April. The best case scenario for Buffalo is McCarron blossoms given a chance to start and the Bills are able to develop a drafted quarterback behind him, giving McCarron some trade value next offseason.
What’s the risk: This is a two-year deal for McCarron, which reflects how he is likely viewed as a bridge option to a younger quarterback. It is not immediately clear how McCarron’s deal is structured and how easily the Bills could get out of it after the first year if McCarron underperformed. With only three career starts, all in 2015, the Bills are getting far from a sure bet in McCarron. He will not bring the same graybeard presence to the quarterback room that the Bills might have gotten in Josh McCown,nfl jerseys cheap nike Anderson or Moore. If McCarron cannot turn his flashes of potential from 2015 — a 66 percent completion rate, 97.1 quarterback rating, six touchdowns and two interceptions — into results this season, there might be questions about whether the Bills should have kept Tyrod Taylor on a one-year, $18 million deal instead of trading him to Cleveland for a third-round pick.
