Former Alabama AJ McCarron has yet to start an NFL game.
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Former Alabama AJ McCarron has yet to start an NFL game.

What seemed like a throwaway stat from a near-meaningless NFL preseason game made the rounds on Twitter.

An quarterback from Alabama hasn’t started and won a regular-season NFL game since 1988.

You read that right.

No Jay Barker. No Greg McElroy. No Brodie Croyle. No AJ McCarron, who is stuck behind Andy Dalton in Cincinnati.

Of course, Alabama quarterbacks have won four national championships during that time (1992, 2009, 2011, 2012), so somebody has been doing something right in that program.

If you don’t remember Rutledge, he started for Alabama’s 1978 national championship team and played 14 seasons in the NFL, for the Rams, Giants and Redskins.

Croyle — who was nicknamed “Brokie” in the NFL because it seemed like he was always hurt — had several chances for victories with the Chiefs, but something disastrous always seemed to happen.

He was 0-10 in his NFL starts.

McElroy made only one start with the New York Jets, a 27-17 loss to San Diego in 2012. He retired after missing the entire 2013 season.

McCarron missed all of last season with shoulder tendinitis and made his NFL debut in Monday’s preseason game, which likely led to the stat being shown.

If Dalton struggles this season like he did Monday night, McCarron might have a chance to break the Bama QB NFL winless streak.

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