A lot of factors point to AJ McCarron winning his first NFL start this Sunday. History isn't one of them.
The Cincinnati Bengals' second-year quarterback will be playing with the support of a 10-3 team, and against a 4-9 San Francisco 49ers squad that has lost three of its last four games. But McCarron will also be battling something of a curse that goes back nearly 30 years: No former Alabama quarterback has won an NFL start since 1987.
The last to do so was Jeff Rutledge, who won at Philadelphia on Nov. 15 of that year, 20-17. Since then, five Alabama quarterbacks have been drafted without winning a start: Mike Shula, Jay Barker, Brodie Croyle, Greg McElroy and McCarron. Three of those, Shula, Barker and McElroy, never got much of a chance in the NFL. Croyle was drafted the highest, a third-round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2006, but injuries shortened his NFL career and he lost each of 10 starts over five NFL seasons in Kansas City. John Parker Wilson played four years in the NFL as an undrafted free agent, but never got the call to start a game.
That Alabama hasn't had a quarterback drafted higher than Round 3 in such a long span speaks in part to the program's long history with a ground-based offense. Indeed, the Crimson Tide has had four running backs drafted higher than Round 3 just since 2011. A lot of those quarterbacks did plenty of handing off in their college careers. McCarron, however, started for three seasons and recorded 1,026 pass attempts, winning two national championships.
None of that will matter Sunday against the 49ers, but if McCarron has anything to say about it, neither will his school's streak of NFL quarterback futility.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
