AJ McCarron looks to do what no 'Bama QB has done since 1987

AJ McCarron was the starting quarterback when Alabama won a couple national titles. Brent Musburger made his girlfriend, Katherine Webb, famous. The Cincinnati Bengals took him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft to serve as a backup for Andy Dalton.

Between then and Sunday he'd thrown four NFL passes, married Webb and announced the two are expecting a child. You're forgiven if you kind of forgot about him.

Now McCarron is one of the most important players in the race for seeding in the AFC. Dalton fractured his thumb in Sunday's loss to Pittsburgh and the Bengals now belong to McCarron.

For how long? No one is certain, but at 10-3 Cincinnati is in a three-team race with 11-2 New England and 10-3 Denver for A) home-field advantage until the Super Bowl and B) a first-week bye.

The stakes are considerable. Coming in as the three seed not only means an extra game (which cuts the time down Dalton might have to recover if he's not back by then), but could also mean facing dangerous Pittsburgh or white-hot Kansas City, either of which could be the sixth seed, in the wild-card round.

McCarron went 22-of-32 for 280 yards, two touchdowns, two picks and three sacks in a loss to the Steelers. It wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. It was a tough spot to essentially start your NFL career.

Then he went to the postgame news conference and got ripped for daring to utter the name "Tom Brady," the patron saint of all idling backup quarterbacks. In 2001, Brady took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe and led the Patriots to the Super Bowl. He's added three more and is considered one of the greatest of all time.

"You've got to embrace it," McCarron said of suddenly becoming a starter on a strong team. "I love it. You've got to love pressure moments. That's what makes you great. That's when the great ones really shine. I guess Tom Brady was in the same situation when he had the opportunity, so I've got to make the most of it."

The chattering class had a field day, expressing outrage and superiority that McCarron would dare claim he was Tom Brady. Except, he didn't say he was Tom Brady. He said Tom Brady "was in the same situation," which is entirely true. He didn't say he would do what Tom Brady did; he just said he had "to make the most of it."

He didn't say anything wrong unless we've determined that evoking the name of Tom Brady is now some kind of sin against the football gods.

And even if A.J. McCarron does, privately, envision that he will seize this opportunity and become Tom Brady, how is that a bad thing to quietly believe? Would it be better if he aspired to be, say, Dan Orlovsky? Being a career backup is a fine job and requires a great deal of talent and work, but here's guessing even Dan Orlovsky would like to be Tom Brady on the field.

Regardless, this is how it can go in the NFL, ripped even before you get your first start. Dalton knows plenty about that. Is McCarron a confident guy? Of course. He figures he wouldn't be here if he wasn't.

"If you don't [have confidence], you're doomed," he said. "I've always believed in myself when you step inside those white lines. I believe you always have to carry that confidence as a QB because it's a nasty and dirty game and you lose confidence it could go bad for you real quick. I always believe I am the best one out there and I believe that is the confidence you have to bring to every game."

The thing about McCarron's college career is that he's a self-made man, generally at his best when challenged the most. He grew up in a Mobile, Ala., trailer park, got to Tuscaloosa, beat the competition and became a three-year starter. Once considered a so-called "game manager," by his senior season he was throwing as aggressively as anyone. He finished his career with 77 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. He went 36-4 as a starter.

McCarron is the first to note that winning in college means nothing in the pros.

"We've played in a lot of big games when I was in college but this is a totally new game," he said. "College isn't the NFL."

The proof is in the history of Alabama football. The Tide have been winning big for generations and once produced the best quarterbacks in the business – Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler. But despite still winning games, it's been a wasteland for pro quarterbacks since 1985.

In one of the more bizarre NFL stats, when McCarron walks on the field Sunday in San Francisco he will be just the fourth Crimson Tide QB to start a game in the last 30 years, according to research by Mark Inabinett of AL.com.

Jeff Rutledge started 10 career games, but only five after 1985. He went 2-3 as a starter. Brodie Croyle got 10 starts with Kansas City, losing each time. Greg McElroy made one start in 2012, a loss for the New York Jets. So that's a combined 2-14, with the last victory coming in 1987.

None of that matters either, of course. Really nothing does – not Alabama, not former Alabama players, not Tom Brady. All that matters is if McCarron has the poise, preparation and ability to navigate the Bengals through the end of the season – at San Francisco, at Denver, home against Baltimore.

"Do my job each week, know we have an unbelievable defense, don't turn the ball over and we have a chance to win," McCarron said.

With so much at stake, with a dream season on the line, with no one certain if McCarron will start one game or all the games, that's all anyone in Cincinnati can ask. No one thought the AFC race would come down to an Alabama quarterback, but that's how the NFL works.

"I promised the guys I will do whatever I need to do, I will be up here all week, I will not let them down," McCarron said. "I will get my job done."