Walkthrough: McCarron found ways to fit in

Had AJ McCarron on Beyond The Stripes last night for our special preseason edition of the show at Moerlein Lager House. The official run of weekly shows begins Tuesday, Sept. 8, with a new Bengals player joining us every week.

AJ told us he expects to play Monday and will make his professional debut. He was suffering from an upper-body injury that held him out of the preseason opener. That will be a long time coming for the former Alabama quarterback who won back-to-back national championships for the Tide.

What's most interesting is the more you talk with McCarron, first, you realize how prepared he is for the spotlight. He grew up the QB of Alabama football and not only that, he cheated death at the age of 5 when he was in a horrific jet ski accident. His mother was given business cards for grief counseling and was deciding to bury him in his little league uniform.

An NFL debut won't have him shaking in his boots.

Often with rookies, particularly those drafted in later rounds, coaches use the phrase "it wasn't too big for him." That's a big deal. There are few things I can guarantee - the fact that it will not be too big for McCarron is one. Heck, coming from Alabama, it might be too small.

Mostly, what stuck out for me in discussing him dealing with an injured shoulder and being shoved into a corner of the locker room with the injured players last year was how he found ways to still attempt to be part of the team. When you are in the quarterback position, it is so much about leadership and communication. When you are hurt, it's exponentially harder to accomplish that. He found ways.

"It was tough coming to work every day knowing I wasn't really contributing to the team," he said last night. "I was there trying to get healthy and doing everything the team was asking but that's the biggest reason I took up breaking down film for Andy and (quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese) and all the coaches trying to help in every way possible. Each week I would watch all the blitz packages from each team, I would categorize them and put them on a sheet or tell Andy this is what they like. I would give them a rundown and the rest of the coaches. That was the biggest thing for me was taking on that kind of role to make me think I was a part of something."

Throw that on top of McCarron talking about working with all the players on the scout team and putting in extra time going over their film from practice to find ways to give the best looks to the first-team defense and you start to see why McCarron was viewed as the right-hand man of Nick Saban and orchestrator of those championship Alabama teams. Nobody knows what his career will look like in the NFL, whether here or elsewhere, but he certainly exudes a charisma and understanding of how to do the little things that make the difference as a leader.

ON TAP TODAY

The penultimate open practice of training camp goes off at 3 p.m. on the practice fields. Marvin Lewis will hold a press conference at noon. Final open practice of camp will be 1 p.m. on Thursday.

TWITTER QUESTION OF THE DAY

Thanks for the question, Pete.

As for the "Bodine situation." I'm not sure there is one. At least not yet. If we are talking about the rash of bad snaps, I'll only point out that this same exact problem occurred last year during camp and turned out to be a non-factor during games. Not sure what it is about camp, but as long as the game stays clean, nobody is losing their minds on that topic. As for his performance, we have the base level set last year, which was part of a line that set new rushing records and kept Andy Dalton cleaner than most QBs. Was Bodine the weakest link on that line? Yep. But I think it's fair to expect a jump in Year 2. And, hey look, I wrote about that a few weeks back.

Point being, unless he is atrocious through the first quarter of the season, I wouldn't go thinking change is on the horizon. If it was, the options are limited. You could attempt sliding Boling over to center then have rookie Jake Fisher in at guard. I don't know that TJ Johnson would be any better than even a struggling Bodine. At least, we can't guarantee that at this point. Perhaps more importantly, we have seen no experimentation - with Boling or anyone else - at first-team center in this time for experimentation.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

I went for a change of pace with yesterday's off-day story asking players about signing their own jersey and the experience of seeing their own professional jersey on someone else for the first time. The results were this light-hearted read.

Latest episode of the Bengals Beat Podcast is now posted. We hear from Marvin Jones and undrafted rookie running back Terrell Watson. Plus, we break down the winners and losers of camp thus far.

Make sure you pick up our Bengals app. It's been redesigned and de-bugged for a smooth user experience. You can watch all our shows, listen to the pods, get all the news, tweets, push alerts, schedule, roster, etc. All right at your fingertips. Download it at this link or just search for Enquirer Bengals on your smartphone of choice.

TWEET OF THE DAY

Now that is a deserving face for the front of the Wheaties box.

AROUND THE DIVISION

Browns: Second-round corner Justin Gilbert injured his hip flexor, and converted QB Terrelle Pryor re-injured his hamstring.

Ravens: Baltimore makes it official that TE Dennis Pitta will start the season on the PUP.

Steelers: Pittsburgh released reserve quarterback Tajh Boyd.

BENGALS INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

Andy Dalton taking in some tennis in Mason last night.

DEGENERATE CORNER

Odds were released on stat leaders by Bovada. There are a couple of Bengals bargains that might be worth giving a (strictly recreational) thought about. A.J. Green at 16/1 would be worth a flier in my book.

Stats Leaders

Who will lead the League in Passing Yards in the 2015 Regular Season?

Andrew Luck 7/2

Aaron Rodgers 4/1

Peyton Manning 7/1

Ben Roethlisberger 7/1

Drew Brees 9/1

Matt Ryan 10/1

Eli Manning 12/1

Matthew Stafford 12/1

Tom Brady 20/1

Joe Flacco 25/1

Tony Romo 25/1

Philip Rivers 28/1

Ryan Tannehill 33/1

Sam Bradford 50/1

Carson Palmer 66/1

Teddy Bridgewater 100/1

Jay Cutler 100/1

Andy Dalton 100/1

Nick Foles 100/1

Marcus Mariota 100/1

Cam Newton 100/1

Russell Wilson 100/1

Jameis Winston 100/1

Who will lead the League in Rushing Yards in the 2015 Regular Season?

Adrian Peterson 7/2

Jamaal Charles 8/1

Marshawn Lynch 8/1

DeMarco Murray 8/1

LeSean McCoy 17/2

Eddie Lacy 9/1

Jeremy Hill 11/1

Le'Veon Bell 14/1

C.J. Anderson 16/1

Joseph Randle 20/1

Alfred Morris 20/1

Justin Forsett 25/1

Matt Forte 25/1

Melvin Gordon 33/1

Latavius Murray 33/1

Carlos Hyde 40/1

Frank Gore 50/1

Todd Gurley 50/1

Mark Ingram 50/1

Doug Martin 50/1

Lamar Miller 50/1

T.J. Yeldon 50/1

Jonathan Stewart 66/1

Joique Bell 100/1

Andre Ellington 100/1

Chris Ivory 100/1

Rashad Jennings 100/1

Who will lead the League in Receiving Yards in the 2015 Regular Season?

Antonio Brown 11/2

Julio Jones 13/2

Odell Beckham 9/1

Dez Bryant 9/1

Calvin Johnson 9/1

Demaryius Thomas 9/1

T.Y. Hilton 12/1

Jordy Nelson 12/1

A.J. Green 16/1

Alshon Jeffery 20/1

DeAndre Hopkins 25/1

Andre Johnson 25/1

Randall Cobb 33/1

Mike Evans 33/1

Emmanuel Sanders 33/1

Brandin Cooks 50/1

Amari Cooper 50/1

Rob Gronkowski 50/1

DeSean Jackson 50/1

Jordan Matthews 50/1

Kelvin Benjamin 66/1

Larry Fitzgerald 66/1

Jimmy Graham 66/1

Jarvis Landry 66/1

Golden Tate 66/1

Vincent Jackson 75/1

Brandon Marshall 75/1

Sammy Watkins 75/1

Keenan Allen 100/1

Anquan Boldin 100/1

Marques Colston 100/1

Victor Cruz 100/1

Julian Edelman 100/1

Jeremy Maclin 100/1

Steve Smith 100/1

Torrey Smith 100/1

Roddy White 100/1

RANDOMNESS

Kangaroos on the loose!

Have to love this. This woman couldn't care less about this wedding going on. She is sunbathing. She likes this spot. There is no debating the point.

Turns out Ikea is good for something besides getting lost indoors, considering murder of an instruction booklet and $2 breakfast. They have these tech compatible pieces.

If you have an $18.5 million apartment, you have too much money. It might be time to find a charity.

AND FINALLY

In honor of AJ McCarron, who is from Mobile, Ala., and for any of you who somehow haven't seen this news piece from way back that is one of the most watched in YouTube history, it's the Mobile Leprechaun. I'm thinking the same person who drew Tom Brady also drew the leprechaun amateur sketch.