Last year, quarterback AJ McCarron returned to the football field with the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL, completed 203-of-295 passes for 2,150 yards with 24 touchdowns and six interceptions in nine regular-season games and returned to the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals.
This year, McCarron returned to the Battlehawks, now members of the United Football League, completed 164-of-255 passes for 1,582 yards with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions in eight regular-season games and is on standby for his next NFL opportunity.
But there’s a complication this time around.
McCarron sustained an ankle injury on May 11 against the Birmingham Stallions. He missed the next two games but returned for the regular-season finale on June 1, when the Battlehawks beat the San Antonio Brahmas 13-12 to bring the XFL Conference Championship Game to St. Louis.
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St. Louis’ season came to an end on June 8 when the Battlehawks lost to the Brahmas 25-15. On the final play of the first half, McCarron had a defender fall on his injured ankle after he’d thrown a pass. The quarterback stayed on the turf at the Dome at America’s Center until most of the rest of the players were already in the locker rooms, but McCarron returned for the second half.
“I’m just getting ready and then be ready for a call,” McCarron said on Saturday about his NFL prospects for 2024. “My biggest thing right now is getting this thing back 100 percent and staying in shape. Spending time with the family, staying in shape, rehabbing and then being ready to go whenever that call comes.”
At his ninth annual free football camp on Saturday in Mobile, McCarron described his injury as a “Grade 2 high ankle sprain,” which involves a partial tear of the ligaments.
McCarron bypassed ankle surgery during the UFL season. But he had surgery on his left ankle about two weeks ago.
“I feel fine,” McCarron said. “It was a tightrope surgery. Dr. (Norman) Waldrop did it up in Birmingham. It went great. Managing the swelling right now being out of surgery about two weeks. But I actually feel great, and this really helped.”
McCarron was on his feet on Saturday at Mobile Christian School’s Harrison Field for his football camp, during which the quarterback completed a pass to every camper.
McCarron returned to Cincinnati on Sept. 23 for his ninth NFL season as a member of the Bengals’ practice squad. But Joe Burrow’s season-ending injury on Nov. 16 elevated McCarron into the backup role.
McCarron had started his NFL career in Cincinnati. The Bengals chose McCarron in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL Draft after he had served as the starting quarterback for two BCS national-championship teams at Alabama. While with the Crimson Tide, McCarron won the Maxwell Award, finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and set the Crimson Tide’s career records for passing yards and yards of total offense, among other marks.
McCarron joined the Oakland Raiders in 2018 and played for the Houston Texans in 2019 and 2020.
After joining the Atlanta Falcons, McCarron sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a preseason game on Aug. 21, 2021, and he missed the entire season.
It was from that injury that McCarron made his return with the Battlehawks in 2023.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.