Nine-year veteran tight end Tony McGee, who had played his entire NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals, was released Thursday by the team.

The move leaves the Bengals with only one tight end on the roster who has started in a regular-season game, Kirk McMullen, and the former undrafted college free agent has but two starts on his resume. Cincinnati will rely on a pair of youngsters, Sean Brewer and rookie Matt Schobel.

A third-round choice in the 2001 draft, Brewer missed his entire rookie season with a severe groin injury sustained in training camp last summer. The Bengals chose Schobel in the third round of this year's draft, trading up in the stanza to secure his services.

McGee, 31, was the current team leader in games played (136) and started (134) with the Bengals. He played in 11 games and started nine in 2001 and registered career lows in both receptions (14) and receiving yards (148) while scoring just one touchdown.

The former Michigan standout joined in the team as a second-round selection in the 1993 draft and earned a starting job as a rookie. Until last season, when he missed the last five games of the year with a knee injury, McGee had started 14 or more games every year. In fact, he had missed just three games in his entire career until the 2001 campaign.

The release of McGee will save the Bengals $1.3 million on their 2002 salary cap. The Bengals must still count $500,000 against the spending limit for McGee, the remaining prorated share of a past signing bonus.

McGee had his finest season in 1995, when he caught 55 passes for 754 yards and four touchdowns, but the role of the tight end has been de-emphasized in the Bengals offense for the past several years. McGee had not caught more than 26 passes in a season since 1997 and hadn't been over 400 receiving yards since that year.

His career totals include 299 receptions for 3,795 yards and 20 touchdowns.

McGee has already drawn interest from the Dallas Cowboys. McGee is familiar with former Cowboys offensive coordinator Bruce Coslet's system from Coslet's time with the Bengals, and Dallas has already made arrangements for McGee to come to Dallas for a physical.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Information from ESPN's Ed Werder was used in this report.