Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron found himself in the news this week when an oversight from the Browns prevented him from getting traded to Cleveland. But, he may have an opportunity to leave Cincinnati and join up with any team he chooses this spring. The NFLPA is fighting to change his status from restricted free agent to unrestricted free agent after the season, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (Twitter link). 
[RELATED: Browns Botched A.J. McCarron Trade With Bengals]
Because he spent most of his rookie year on the non-football injury list, the Bengals say that he is an RFA. However, the union says that due to the nature and timing of the injury, he should not have been on the NFI list and should have four accrued seasons at the end of 2017 instead of only three.
If McCarron earns UFA status, he’ll be in for a much larger payday. The Bengals are already committed to Andy Dalton under center and it would be nearly impossible for them to commit top-20 QB money to McCarron, so he would almost certainly wind up somewhere else. Potentially, this could be Cleveland’s second chance to land the Alabama product, though McCarron might have some reservations about the Browns organization after Tuesday’s debacle.
Why would he make more in unrestricted? He can still sign the same deal, can he not? Isn’t the only difference that Cincinnati can match?
If he’s restricted a team would have to give up a draft pick to sign him
A “restricted” free agent’s previous team has the right to designate a player with one of three round tenders. Assigning a player with a first round tender means that any team interested in signing the player would have to sacrifice their first round pick to sign the player. A second round tender indicates the forfeiture of a teams second round pick in order to sign a player and lastly an original round tender means that any team will simply sacrifice the round that the player was drafted in (in the case of an UFA there is no draft pick forfeiture).
Teams that offer the tender then are on the hook for the value of such a round tender, for instance last season’s first round tender was valued at $3.91 million for one season, second round was valued at $2.746 million and original round was $1.797 million.
In addition to the round tender, the team who would be losing the player also reserves the right to match any contract offered to the restricted free agent.
Forgot to add how it is relevant here.
AJ McCarron will most likely be assigned a first round tender which will come in around $4 million assuming the inflation continues to go up. Cincinnati would gladly stomach that number compared to attempting to sign McCarron as a free agent where we saw Mike Glennon just receive a 3 year $45 million dollar deal which will cost the Bears $16 million for just one season.The savings to Cincinnati is huge here because it essentially will give them another season of control over AJ at a relatively low cost. Considering most no QB needy teams will be drafting towards the top of the first round, I can’t imagine any team willing give up their first round pick for him unless they are absolutely convinced that he is their future.
Won’t it cost the Bears $19 million for Glennon if they let him go after the 1st year?
As I read it Glennon’s Contract contains an out after 1 year. This will incur $4.5 million in dead cap money but I don’t see anythiing futher that would indicate much more. He has a guaranteed $18.5 million in the contract so if that’s what you are referring to then yes he will have cost the Bears around $19 million for the one season.