Decision on AJ McCarron’s free agent status could be delayed

The AJ McCarron saga has been as long and drawn out as humanly possible, so why not tack on another day to it?

It appears that’s what’s going on, as McCarron’s arbitration ruling could be delayed to another day. According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, a personal issue with the arbitrator could lead to a ruling on McCarron’s free agent status not coming today.

The Bengals and McCarron just want this to end as soon as possible. Once the call is made, they can really build a game plan on how they’ll handle his free agency.

The expectation has been that McCarron will be ruled a restricted free agent, but it’s not a done deal. Once the ruling comes in, the Bengals can decide what they’ll do with McCarron. If he’s restricted, they can begin speaking with other teams in hopes of striking a trade.

But if he’s an unrestricted free agent, then there’s really nothing the Bengals can do other than hope another team signs him to a big deal, which could lead to a nice compensatory pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Here is a refresher on McCarron’s arbitration.