Even before Greg McElroy announced his retirement Friday, the Bengals were getting filled up at the position. They still have four (Andy Dalton, Jason Campbell, Josh Johnson, Zac Robinson) and the pundits are expecting them to select one starting in the middle of the May 8-10 NFL Draft.
Dalton and Robinson have the most time in the Bengals' system, but since new offensive coordinator Hue Jackson is planning to tweak Jay Gruden's playbook everyone is undergoing a learning curve of some sort. The Bengals seem to seriously be considering keeping three quarterbacks for the first time since Dalton became the starter, but they don't figure to go into training camp with more than four of them and that would make the spring camps quite interesting.
Robinson was on the shelf all last year with an injured elbow. McElroy, signed to the roster after spending a year on the practice squad, has already done a lot in the game. An extremely bright guy that led Alabama to a national title, he's always had a bright future. In Friday's retirement tweet via profootballtalk.com, he didn't elaborate but went out of his way to salute the Bengals.
"Thank you to Marvin Lewis, the Brown family and the entire Cincinnati Bengals' organization," before thanking the fans and the Jets team that drafted him in the 2010 seventh round.