With the St. Louis Battlehawks’ postseason plans possibly dependent on a tiebreaker, quarterback AJ McCarron’s comeback season might end on Saturday.

Before signing on for the XFL’s return this season, the former Alabama All-American hadn’t played since Aug. 21, 2021, when he suffered a knee injury in an Atlanta Falcons’ preseason game as he was preparing for his eighth NFL campaign.

McCarron leads the XFL with 18 touchdowns passes and has completed 175-of-260 passes for 1,730 yards with six interceptions in eight games. He also has run for 91 yards and one touchdown on 26 carries.

McCarron said the end of the 2023 XFL season would not be his football finale.

“I’m not done playing,” McCarron said. “I think I’ve shown that I can play at a high level and play on a consistent level, too. It’s been awesome to have my kids be a part of this. I don’t know what the future holds. After the season’s over, we’ll sit down as a family and with my agent and see teams he’s talked to in the (NFL) or what they’re saying, and if the situation’s right for me, we’ll decide that then, and if not, we’ll talk and figure out what’s best for us as a family and then go forward from there.”

More immediately, the Battlehawks enter their final regular-season game tied with the Seattle Sea Dragons for the second spot in the XFL’s North Division. One of the teams will play the D.C. Defenders for a spot in the league’s championship game.

St. Louis had the opportunity to secure the postseason spot on Sunday but lost to Seattle 30-12. That left the teams tied at 6-3.

The Battlehawks play the Orlando Guardians at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. ESPN will televise the game. The Sea Dragons play the Vegas Vipers at 6 p.m. Sunday at Lumen Field in Seattle. ESPN2 will televise the game.

If the Battlehawks and Sea Dragons have the same result this weekend, the first tiebreaker – head-to-head – won’t work because St. Louis defeated Seattle 20-18 on Feb. 23.

If both teams lose, the second tiebreaker – division record – would put the Battlehawks in the playoffs.

If both win, the teams remain tied though the second tiebreaker. The third tiebreaker – strength of victory also wouldn’t resolve anything, because the teams would have beaten the same set of teams, lost two games to the Defenders and split their season series.

That would bring the fourth tiebreaker into play – combined ranking among division teams in points scored and points allowed. Seattle has outscored its opponents 215-168, and St. Louis has outscored its opponents 196-174 this season. That leaves the Sea Dragons ahead in both categories, having scored more points and yielded fewer points in 2022.

Among the North Division’s four teams, Seattle is second in points scored and first in points allowed, with St. Louis third in points scored and second in points allowed. Changing the tiebreaker in their favor will come down to the Battlehawks outscoring the Sea Dragons by more than 19 points in Week 10 and yielding at least seven fewer points.

The fifth tiebreaker is best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.

“I think if you worry about points, you start to press a little and do things that you’re not used to,” McCarron said, “so for us, it’s going out and playing the best ball we can and coming out with a win on Saturday. …

“It’s us coming out first and foremost with a W, and then let the chips fall where they fall. I think we’ve shown that we’re one of the top three teams in the league, for sure, and so it’s always a tough situation if we don’t make it knowing that you’re one of the top three teams because of who you’ve beaten and everything else.

“All you can do is worry about what you can control, and everything else is out of your control and you just kind of go with the flow on that. We just got to focus on winning this game, putting on a good show for our crowd and leaving St. Louis fans, Battlehawk Nation, with a good taste in their mouth and ending on a positive note for us at home especially.”

McCarron missed St. Louis’ 21-17 overtime victory against the Vipers on April 8 because of a shoulder injury before returning to the lineup last week.

“For me personally, I feel great,” McCarron said. “I played last week. It’s late in the football season. Everybody’s going to be banged up. Everybody’s got things that are hurting and sore. That’s part of the game. For me personally, I’m good to go.”

Beating the Guardians would seem to be the easy part of the Battlehawks’ activating the tiebreaking scenarios. At 1-8, Orlando has the worst record in the XFL.

But on April 1, the Guardians defeated D.C. 37-36 to pin the only loss of the season on the Defenders. In its two games since that upset, Orlando lost to the Arlington Renegades 18-16 on April 8 and the San Antonio Brahmas 25-23 on Saturday. The Guardians also have three other one-score losses.

“I think Orlando’s been playing really well,” the former St. Paul’s Episcopal star said. “They beat D.C. a couple of weeks ago, so it’s going to be a tough game. In playing the game of football, you can’t worry about somebody’s schedule. That’s why they named the movie ‘Any Given Sunday,’ and it’s why you have upsets all the time because you still got to go out and play inside the white lines.”

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