AJ McCarron, Time to Just Shut up and Throw Already
By Larry Burton
With Nick Saban as his mentor, coach and friend for so many years, AJ McCarron could always be counted on to say and do the right things. If there was any question that this would not happen, Saban shielded him from us in the press by not allowing him to participate in post game interviews. Such was the case during the quarterback battle between him and Phillip Sims.
But when a microphone was placed in front of AJ, he always said the right things as if he was programmed by Saban himself. Always tote the company line, always praise the team, never point your finger at a player who may have been a problem and mostly never complain.
Those lessons seem to have become lost to AJ as he now rides his detractors, whines that he is being unfairly labeled and his skills and talent not being cast in the best light.
Enough AJ. Just shut up and throw already.
This being said by a writer that both admires and respects McCarron as much as I do.
You’re not fast, in fact, even by quarterback standards you’re not fast, so forget it. Teams that are interested in drafting you know they’re not getting a dual threat QB. And you have other shortcomings that lately seem to cause you great angst to have reporters bring up. Forget them and the reporters who dredge that up. Every NFL person involved with any decision making capacity already knows them all. They didn’t seem to bother you much while you were active at Alabama and many of us are scratching our heads wondering why the same things that have always been said about you seem to bother you so much now.
Quit whining that people are dwelling on those aspects of your game that aren’t your best. Just shut up and throw already.
Teams want a quarterback that’s cool under pressure, so stop letting these reporters get under your skin and in your head. Just shut up throw already.
Teams know you’re a winner number one, that you don’t make a lot of possession changing mistakes number two and that heretofore, you’ve been cool calm and collected. So just shut up and throw already.
They knew you were smart, a winner and someone who used to be so cool and calm, but you shine the most when you let your arm and accuracy do the talking. Your record and achievements speak for themselves, so for anything else that needs to be said, let your arm do the talking.
In the NFL combine, you raised eyebrows and perhaps your draft stock by hitting the passing drills with such accuracy, especially the deep balls which elicited comments like, “Wow! McCarron proved that his arm has more NFL talent than we thought!” So just shut up and throw already.
With your next big showing being NFL Pro Days back in Tuscaloosa, simply say, “I’ll let my past and future results and records do the talking along with my throwing drills.”
Right now, only Blake Bortels looked better throwing the ball and just one other quarterback, Jimmy Garoppalo, from from Eastern Illinois, threw anything close to what you accomplished in those drills. So just shut up and throw already. That’s the AJ we’ve all come to love.
 Larry is an award winning writer whose work has appeared in almost every college football venue. Now he primarily writes for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
