If his goal of returning to the NFL doesn’t work out, quarterback AJ McCarron said he would consider playing in the XFL again next season.

The former Alabama All-American led the XFL with 24 touchdown passes for the St. Louis Battlehawks during the 2023 season.

McCarron got back on the field for the first time since he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while playing for the Atlanta Falcons in an NFL preseason game on Aug. 21, 2021. McCarron spent his entire eighth NFL season on injured reserve.

“My goal was to play 10 years,” McCarron said during an appearance on the “Springball Boulevard” podcast. “When I first came in as a rookie: All right, I want to play 10 years in the league.

“But I also want it to be a good situation. I don’t want just to go to just anybody. Listen, I would like to be back in the league, and I think I’ve shown this year that I can still play at a very high level and lead an offense. But if it’s not God’s plan, then I have no problem coming back to play in the XFL. I thought it was an unbelievable experience.”

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The Arlington Renegades and D.C. Defenders will square off for the XFL championship on Saturday night. McCarron would have liked to have seen how the Battlehawks could have fared in the league’s postseason.

Despite a 7-3 record, St. Louis didn’t make the playoff field. The Battlehawks lost the North Division’s second postseason spot on the fifth tiebreaker. Arlington, the No. 2 team in the South, qualified with a 4-6 regular-season mark.

“We were going to get a bunch of guys back from a defensive standpoint,” McCarron said. “That really hurt us in the end on the defensive side. Some key guys – (linebacker) Mike Rose, some guys in the secondary, (cornerback) Tim Harris that was battling injury most of the year and some other guys that were just nicked up and trying to play through stuff, so they missed the last game. I felt like, all right, if we can get in, they’ll be back for the first round, and I think we’ll have basically our whole team. The crazy thing is we were healthy on offense. …

“I think if we could have just got to that point, we would have made a really good run at it because we played D.C. close every time, and it always came down to the last couple of minutes of the game. But it’s hard in this business to go shoulda, coulda, woulda and if’s. Hell, D.C.’s a great team, and they’ll have a great shot at winning this thing now.”

The Defenders defeated the Battlehawks 34-28 on March 5 and 28-20 on March 18 on their way to the league’s best regular-season record at 9-1.

D.C. reached the championship game by beating the Seattle Sea Dragons 37-21 in the North Division playoff game on April 30.

In St. Louis’ regular-season finale, McCarron passed for 420 yards and six touchdowns in a 53-28 victory over the Orlando Guardians on April 22, but the Battlehawks lost a points race with the Sea Dragons to play the Defenders again. St. Louis was No. 2 in points scored and No. 5 in points allowed in the XFL during the regular season. The Sea Dragons were No. 4 in points scored and No. 1 in points allowed, giving Seattle the lower combined ranking in the league.

The Defenders and Renegades meet at 7 p.m. CDT Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. ABC will televise the league championship game.

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The XFL title game won’t be the end of the football grind for dozens of players in the league. More than 50 XFL players have participated in NFL rookie minicamps last weekend or this weekend as tryout players, and on Monday, XFL players will become eligible to sign NFL contracts.

McCarron thinks the carryover from the XFL season will allow the league’s players to avoid pressing and show the best versions of their football selves in their NFL opportunities.

McCarron also said he thinks the XFL and USFL will alter the offseason timetable in the NFL. Typically, an NFL team will sign most or all of its practice-squad members to reserve/future contracts at the end of the season. That ties the player to the team during the offseason and puts him on the 90-player roster when the NFL’s new business year begins in March.

The XFL and USFL offer the opportunity to play and perhaps open better opportunities in the NFL.

“I think you’ll have guys that are on practice squads that don’t sign future deals,” the former St. Paul’s Episcopal star said. “Hey, I want to get out here and show – ‘For whatever reason, I was on this practice squad and wasn’t able to make the team’ – show what I can do and get a better opportunity, because you see guys getting signed even from the USFL – the returner for Dallas (KaVontae Turpin) who ended up being a Pro Bowler — so I think you’re going to see more guys take that route, not just sign future deals, and will be able to showcase to teams around the league what they can do.”

The current XFL weathered its first season with a unique arrangement. The teams practiced and trained in the Arlington, Texas, area, then traveled to play true home games in their namesake cities.

“I would love to sit down with the decision-makers of the XFL and be able to say, ‘Hey, I think if we go this route, it’ll help guys,’” McCarron said. “How can we make the league better for the players, for the fans, because I think there are certain things that they can do. And then from a living situation, from the medical side of it and nutrition and stuff, I think there’s ways to grow.

“But for the first year of the league coming back, I thought it was an unbelievable experience. I really did. And I thought the league did an unbelievable job of showing what the league was about, showing players, their stories, and it was just an unbelievable experience and something that I will definitely – and my boys and the rest of my family and friends – will cherish for the rest of our lives, for sure.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.