The Bills figure as a raging lock to pick a rookie quarterback in next week's draft.
That would loom as ill news for AJ McCarron, but Buffalo's free-agent addition isn't losing any sleep.
"Listen, I can't worry about that because it creates mental clutter for myself. So if I create mental clutter for myself, I can't become the best player, the best teammate that I need to be for this team," McCarron said Tuesday during a break in Buffalo's offseason workouts.
"My focus, like I said, is to be the best leader, the best teammate, the best servant for the guys that are in this locker room, and that's what I'm trying to be," McCarron told reporters. "So for me to worry about ifs and what could happen, it's just not a part of my DNA. I've never been that way and won't ever do it."
After enduring a flat market in free agency, McCarron inked a low-level deal with the Bills after spending the past four seasons as Andy Dalton's backup in Cincinnati.
In Buffalo, he's set to compete with second-year arm Nathan Peterman for the starting role, but the quarterback room is far from finished. Bills general manager Brandon Beane made it clear this week that finding a franchise arm is the unquestioned top priority in Western New York.
"You've got to have a franchise quarterback," Beane said Monday. "That's one of the main jobs of a GM is to find a franchise quarterback, it's a quarterback league, I'll say it every single time. You have to have one."
These words came after the Bills shipped Tyrod Taylor to the Browns and handed McCarron a two-year, $10 million contract. That's a pact reserved for backups and bridge passers, but McCarron isn't in the mood to be categorized.
"Everybody has labels for you ... I can't sit there worried about what somebody else thinks about me -- a bridge quarterback or not that good of a quarterback -- whatever it is," McCarron said. "I know I trust in myself. I have self-confidence. I think that's what makes people successful, and not worry about what my teammates and coaches think. I just go from there. I don't worry about labels."
Labels aside, McCarron was unable to shake Dalton in Cincinnati. The former Alabama star has a legitimate shot to open the season as Buffalo's starter -- but keeping the job will be an entirely different story.
