Remember when AJ McCarron started at quarterback for two of Alabama's BCS national-championship teams, won the Maxwell Award as the nation's best collegiate player, set the SEC record for lowest interception rate and broke the Crimson Tide marks for passing yards and TD passes, and some folks labeled him a game manager?
On Thursday, McCarron signed a two-year contract with the Buffalo Bills, and at the subsequent press conference, was asked what he thought about being labeled a bridge quarterback.
The prevailing opinion is that the Bills are planning to draft their quarterback of the future next month, reinforced by McCarron's contract, which has been reported as heavy with playing-time incentives and a dead-money number of "only" $2 million on Buffalo's 2019 salary cap if it parts ways with McCarron after one season. By that way of thinking, McCarron is keeping the QB seat warm until the junior member of the quarterback room is ready to play.
"A lot of people have labels," McCarron said. "You can either let it affect you and how you go about your work and let that define you or you change everybody's thought process on you. That's always been my mindset: To change everybody that has any doubt or anything and just come in and work my tail off. Really just show this organization, everybody from the top to the bottom, I'm here to work and be a team guy. Try to help this team win any way possible."
McCarron said he isn't concerned with Buffalo's plans in the draft. After signing McCarron, the Bills have two quarterbacks on their roster. He joined Nathan Peterman, a fifth-round choice in the 2017 NFL Draft, who played in four games and started two in his rookie season.
"I try not to ever waste any mental thought on it because it's something I can't control," McCarron said, "and there's no reason for me to put any thought into it, just to be honest with you, because it creates mental clutter for my process that I need to do day in and day out to be the best player I need to be. So whatever they feel is best for the organization, but I'm just going to come out and work my tail off for them and for this city and be the best player I can."
After spending four seasons as a backup with the Cincinnati Bengals, McCarron said the Bills gave him what he was looking for in free agency.
"I thought it was just a great opportunity for myself to come up here and be able to compete for a starting job," McCarron said, "and that's all you can ask for in this league. That was the main thing I was saying while I was in Cincinnati.
"It wasn't about money. My background, I come from absolutely nothing, so I've always just known ball, and I just wanted a chance to compete and play and felt like I would have that opportunity here."
McCarron and his wife flew from Mobile to Buffalo on Thursday morning, and he said he already had a good feeling about the city's football scene.
"I think as soon as we landed, we had Bills fans come up and talk to us and already start telling us stories," McCarron said. "... It's an awesome situation to be in because even when we stepped off, me and my wife were talking about it kind of feels like Bama again. It's that type of atmosphere, and we had spent so much time there. I'm telling you, it's just exciting to be here and be a part of this."
In Buffalo, McCarron will be working with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. Last season, Daboll served as the offensive coordinator for Alabama's CFP national-championship team. While the collective-bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players association prohibits McCarron from talking shop with Daboll at this time of year, the quarterback said he had had some contact with the coordinator during Daboll's time at Alabama.
"I think coach is an unbelievable offensive mind, super smart," McCarron said, "and I can't wait to get back up here and start learning the offense and figuring this thing out."
McCarron almost got an opportunity to start in the NFL last season, when the Bengals traded him to the Cleveland Browns for picks in the second and third rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft. But the Browns bungled the technical details of the deal and missed the NFL trading deadline.
McCarron escaped Cincinnati when an arbitrator ruled last month that his first season should count toward the four needed to become an unrestricted free agent. The Bengals continued it shouldn't because of the time the QB spent on the non-football injury list.
Buffalo had an opening for a quarterback after trading Tyrod Taylor last week to Cleveland, where the scuttlebutt had McCarron headed initially in free agency.
"I think it's a little bit of a roller coaster, for sure," McCarron said, "just from the trade and everything and how it happened, how it all went about. But one thing my wife always says: Us as humans want our plan to happen on our time, and really it's on God's time. He has a plan. We get impatient, and you want things quick and fast and easy. But it's not always that way. So I think it adds another chapter to the story in the end, and it's just part of the process.
"It's awesome to be here in this situation now. I'm truly blessed to be a part of the Bills Mafia, and I just can't wait. I really can't."
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.