Jim Owczarski

jowczarski@enquirer.com

Since 2008, the average length of an NFL career has dipped to fewer than three years. This was according to the Wall Street Journal. “Not For Long” indeed. So much can impact that number. Opportunity. Injury. Opinion.

And for the players, none of it is within their control.

A TASTE OF STARDOM

MOBILE, Alabama – A.J. McCarron brought his right hand to his heart.

His arm can be measured. His athleticism, too.

His film can be dissected.

But in there, beating beneath his palm, is the one thing he says can help him lead an NFL franchise.

“That’s hard to see,” he said, sitting in the University of South Alabama office of his longtime friend and USA wide receivers coach Tyler Siskey.

“People don’t understand me. Anybody who truly knows me knows what type of competitor I am. I’m going to find a way to win. I‘ve always been that way. I always demand that from everybody. And I truly care about my guys that are with me.”

It seems like forever ago when McCarron dropped the go-ahead touchdown through the rain and into the waiting hands of A.J. Green in the AFC wild-card game against Pittsburgh on Jan. 9, 2016, the exclamation point on a five-game stretch in which he filled in for an injured Andy Dalton.

All of that– his heart, his preparation, his play – he could control.

It is what has catapulted him into the ever-churning offseason rumor mill.

In his exit interview with Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis in January, McCarron let it be known he’d welcome a chance to compete, to prove those 119 pass attempts in 2015 were the foundation for something bigger. It’s really all he could do.

Some other general manager, some coach would have to determine he was worth acquiring. Then the Bengals would have to determine whether to trade him or not.

McCarron shrugs. None of that is in his hands.

“My biggest thing is getting here, training, working on whatever I need to work on in my game to be the best guy, the best quarterback I can be, and then let the chips fall where they fall,” he said. “I’ve always said this, and I’m a Christian guy, I believe God has a plan. He has a road for me and I’m just going to follow that path and it’s going to happen.”

So in the midst of this second offseason of hearsay and anonymous sourcing about his future, two things are certain as the calendar creeps closer to the start of voluntary workouts in mid-April: McCarron is under contract with the Bengals and he’ll be at Paul Brown Stadium unless told otherwise.

“Of course I’ll be there,” he said. “I’d never, I would never do that (not attend). I understand certain situations but I make a good living doing what I do and I’m very humbled by it. I would never want to show up Mr. Brown and anybody in the organization and not come. I would definitely have my ass there. Even if I ever thought about it, my mom and dad would probably still, as old as I am, come beat my ass to make me go back up. Just the way I was raised.”

He smiled and continued.

“It’d be tough at first. Like, because I know I’m having to go through the whole backup process again. But at the same time, that’s my job. I need to be the best backup quarterback in the league and I’m going to go there and work my ass off to prove that and show that I am so that they’re proud, as an organization, to sit back and say at practice if they’re watching 'like man, I’m glad we had that guy as our backup.' I still want to make everybody proud.”

Until then, McCarron is taking ownership of the one thing he can – himself.

He works out at South Alabama’s campus in Mobile, in its weight room and on its secluded, tree-ringed practice field, instructing receivers on which routes to run, at what depth, to get his work in.

“Whether it’s this year or when I’m a free agent, I think somebody’s going to take a chance on me to be a starter,” he said. “I could say this when they do, and it’s cliché and everybody says it, but I’m going to work my ass off and I won’t let them down.”

TIME TO CASH IN

DeShawn Williams can still push around his grocery cart anonymously in a Kroger just outside of downtown Cincinnati. No one is talking about him as a multi-million dollar option for another team. He’s entering his third season of professional football and still trying to find his place in the league.

The 24-year-old defensive tackle understands the clock is ticking. You can start out anonymous in the NFL, but you can’t stay there for long.

“A lot of people don’t even make it to their third year, especially being a free agent guy,” said Williams, acknowledging his roots as an undrafted free agent out of Clemson.

“I feel like this is a big year for me. I think they’re, like, 'OK, you can’t be complacent going into to your third year. You have to show us why should we keep you,' you know what I mean?”

Yet Williams knows the team could make it harder for him to do just that. Another draft is coming up, the Bengals have 11 picks and one or more could be used on the defensive line. There are already six other players on the roster listed at Williams’ position. Recent draft picks Marcus Hardison (2014) and Andrew Billings (2015) are now healthy.

For the third year in a row, training camp could turn into a numbers game for Williams.

“I know that they have a lot more value in them,” Williams said. “So I know that I have to put the pressure on them to make the tough decisions. And if that decision goes elsewhere, it is what it is and I have to go somewhere else and, hopefully, they give me a better chance. It’s football. The NFL is a business.”

The Bengals like him. They have told him he has the potential for a long NFL career and rewarded his loyalty in 2015 for not bolting for New Orleans by calling him up to the 53-man roster for the AFC playoffs.

Williams made the opening week roster in 2016 but spent the early part of the year as a healthy scratch. He wound up being waived for a weekend, which shocked his system. The Bengals needed his roster spot, so just like that, he was expendable.

Only he was waived on a Saturday, a shrewd business decision by the club. With rosters having to be set by the next day, it was likely he wouldn't be claimed by another team. It was a smart gamble, and Williams re-signed in Cincinnati. It calloused him, that harsh exposure to the fickle nature of the NFL.

Williams wasn’t too happy about it then but can chuckle at it now.

After never seeing the field and being released, the very week he was re-signed his made his NFL debut against Philadelphia and recorded a half-sack. Given a sliver of control over his place on the team, he made the most of it. He made a tackle the next week against Cleveland and finished with four quarterback hits in four games.

It wasn’t much, but it was important on several levels. One, Williams had his belief in himself validated with results. Two, those results came in regular season games and are on film for any team to see.

“I’m thankful for them to give me the opportunity but I know this year, I’m going to have to cash in,” Williams said. “You never know what’s going to happen but I know I’m betting on me.”

The table will be set in April with voluntary workouts begin, the ante raised after the draft and the 90-man training camp roster is set. After that…

“It’s the time to put everything together,” he said. “I know I’m starting from ground zero again, that guy that was a free agent guy. I feel like I’m going to be the low ball of the totem pole again going into this thing. So I know I have to go out there when my number is called, give it my all and let the chips fall where they may.

“I can’t control what coaches do. I can only control what I can do. And I know if I do the best I can do, I’ll be happy with the outcome.”

ONE MORE YEAR

BAY MINETTE, Alabama – Wallace Gilberry leaned back into the dark leather on a couch in his living room and raised a hand to the populated shelves that framed the television on the wall. Game balls. Helmets. Accomplishments from nine years in the NFL.

He would like one more. But after nearly a decade in the league, Gilberry knows all too well it’s not up to him.

“You’re only good as how good somebody thinks you’re worth to them,” he said. “That’s just what it is. You don’t sit there and think about that.' I’m worth more than that to you. You’re worth more than that to me.' If you sit here and try and put a price value on it …”

Gilberry’s home sits on the water in his hometown, warm and inviting. He had family and coaches past and present over for dinner in late January and his mom Sharon, cooked for everybody. The peach cobbler disappeared especially quickly. He is happy, at ease.

“It’s a different feeling,” Gilberry said of this free agent period. “I can’t really explain it. It’s personal. When I first got in the league, man, it was business. It was all business. I was a free agent. I didn’t have time to make friends. I didn’t have time to build relationships with the coaches. I didn’t have time for that. I was trying to make teams. I was trying to focus on every opportunity that I had, being the best at it. And now, it’s getting more personal.”

He is 32 years old now, a veteran of 129 games, including the playoffs. He has beaten all the odds. He made the Kansas City roster as an undrafted free agent. Since then, he’s made over $11 million in cash earnings, according to the salary tracking website spotrac.com.

He knows the end is nigh but isn’t worried about whether that conclusion will be reached this offseason – in training camp, in-season or next January.

He has diversified and invested and has business interests that kept him busy. He isn't ready to retire yet but isn't afraid of the questions considering his age and tenure. The league is always getting younger, faster. Gilberry laughs because this fact is in his face every day – his cousins Ryan Anderson and Torren McGaster are draft prospects in April. To turn back the clock, he's been training with them, fueling his fire.

But through it all, he knows he can’t direct his free agency or what personnel departments think of him.

“It’s one of those things where you don’t control it,” Gilberry said. “You just hope the people upstairs respect you for who you are and for what you do. That’s what I stand by. I’ve been that way, bro.”

THE DOOR CLOSES

Michael Bennett’s career ended quietly around Thanksgiving. The phone had stayed silent for long enough and he had begun making calls of his own, looking for work outside of the game.

“By that point, I guess I hung up the proverbial cleats,” he said. “It ended a lot sooner than I thought it would. But I’m OK with that. There’s a plan for everybody.”

It was the one part of the last few years of his football life Bennett had any say over.

He played four years at the University of Georgia and caught 134 passes for 1,607 yards. But a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his final college game, the Belk Bowl on Dec. 30, 2014, didn’t allow him the opportunity to be invited to an all-star game, the scouting combine, or to work out a pro day.

Instead, he had to rehab, setting him back while so many others streaked past.

“I’m already pretty expendable, so when I’m hurt on top of that, it’s like alright, we’re not even going to take a chance on this guy,” Bennett said.

He made the Bengals give him a chance, grinding through his rehab in a mere six months. He then ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash and the Bengals signed Bennett in August of 2015. Months behind his peers, he hustled to catch up. Extra time in the playbook, catching passes after practice. But he was released before the season. The Bengals signed him to the practice squad for six games, however, and then to a futures contract for 2016.

“It still was an opportunity to play for the better part of the season, or at least practice, to be on a team and have an opportunity to make it,” he said. “This past training camp I had a legitimate shot. I really did.”

But the Bengals had drafted Tyler Boyd and Cody Core and an undrafted rookie named Alex Erickson wowed enough to force the team to release veteran Brandon Tate. Bennett was released, too.

After that, Atlanta and Arizona asked him to stay in shape, so he kept his body in football shape in solitude. But he didn’t get any formal workouts. He had a chance to play in Canada but determined the potential strain on his young marriage and the travel weren't worth it.

“I just didn’t want to string on this limbo kind of life of I might get picked up, I might not,” Bennett said. “I’m not making any money, I’m tired of just sitting around not hearing anything, so I’m just going to start networking for a job. I started doing that and when something popped up, I took it.”

Two years removed from his playing days at Georgia and with only sparse preseason snaps on film, the league had silently told Bennett he was no longer a football player at the age of 25.

The finality of retirement set in as he watched his former UGA teammates David Andrews and Malcom Mitchell win the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots. At various points in their college careers, Bennett started over Mitchell.

Now Bennett thinks about office décor for his new career as a commercial real estate agent in Atlanta, working for Cresa.

He takes some measure of satisfaction with his accomplishments, however, and has been able to set his own path going forward.

“Yeah, I’d love to play, but football ends for everyone at some point,” he said. “I kind of just figured I’m tired of this limbo life and was ready to get on with my life.”