The Panthers had expressed interest in bringing Matt Corral back via a practice squad invite, but they took a risk by waiving the former third-round pick. The Patriots will prevent a quick Carolina-Corral reunion from taking place.
New England put in a successful waiver claim for Corral on Thursday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Corral will join an interestingly constructed quarterback room. The Pats now have two QBs on their active roster — Corral and Mac Jones — and two more on their practice squad (Bailey Zappe, Malik Cunningham).
Although the Pats had been connected to wanting a veteran — perhaps Colt McCoy — to be Jones’ backup, Corral is now in that position. Considering Corral missed all of his rookie season and was viewed as a developmental player after last year’s draft, the Ole Miss product might not be New England’s true QB2 in Week 1. But the Pats thought enough of him to use a roster spot via this claim.
Corral spent all of last season on Carolina’s IR, suffering a Lisfranc injury during the preseason. He underwent surgery, but upon recovering, the Panthers had revamped their QB room. Carolina gave up plenty of assets to move from No. 9 to No. 1, via the Bears, for Bryce Young. The team gave Andy Dalton a two-year deal, featuring the largest QB2 guarantee this offseason ($8MM), to mentor the young prospect. Frank Reich spoke highly of Corral’s development, as he aimed to keep him on the taxi squad, but the second-year passer will pack his bags for Foxborough.
The Patriots were the team that allowed the Panthers to move up for Corral in last year’s third round, collecting an additional third-rounder (in 2023) to give up 2022’s No. 94 overall pick. The Carolina selection became No. 76 this year, and the Patriots took promising defender Marte Mapu. Corral also suffered his foot injury during a preseason game at Gillette Stadium last August.
Corral was the last of the third-round QBs chosen last year. He, Desmond Ridder and Malik Willis generated buzz about going much higher than they did, but the draft hit a signal-caller lull after Kenny Pickett went off the board at No. 20. Corral was developing behind Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold when he went down. With P.J. Walker also on the Browns’ practice squad, all four of the Panthers’ QBs from last season are now elsewhere.
New England now has two QBs from the 2022 draft in the mix, though Zappe’s stock has fallen a bit since he generated buzz about competing with Jones. While Corral’s 2021 stats did not measure up to Zappe’s record-setting Western Kentucky numbers, he excelled in the SEC. He averaged 10.2 yards per attempt in 2020, targeting the likes of Elijah Moore and Jonathan Mingo, and posted a 20-5 TD-INT ratio in 2021. Three years remain on the 24-year-old passer’s rookie contract; he is due an $870K base salary this season.
Well I called that on the original thread. Got one right for once
You sir, deserve a cookie.
Same here
If they wanted an inexperienced RPO/athletic quarterback, why wouldn’t they have stuck with Cunningham on the roster? I know that they were trying him at other spots, which could have indicated that he disappointed, but still. Seems like a sideways move to me. Is Corral that much better to be worth having him on the roster and the other two quarterbacks on the practice squad?
It is interesting that the Patriots seem particularly interested in running quarterbacks. Cunningham, McSorley, and now Corral. If that’s what O’Brien prefers now (perhaps working with Watson altered his philosophy), that could play into how New England evaluates Jones after this year. O’Brien is, or at least has been, infamously inflexible when it comes to players not fitting his preferences. If he has a specific idea, which he may not, of what he wants a player to do, he may base his judgement off that as much as the player’s actual ability. Regardless of whether that is even true-which, again, it may not be-you have to think that Jones and the offense should still improve with an actual offensive coordinator this time around.
Cunningham is not an NFL player. As a Pats fan, I’d love for him to be, but there’s a reason he went undrafted. He can’t throw and he can’t catch.
Yeah, I figured as much. Zappe being moved to the practice squad, essentially for Matt Corral, is really the strange part to me. Also, the apparent interest in running quarterbacks, when the starter clearly isn’t, is intriguing.
I honestly believe they wanted Cunningham on the practice squad all along so that the defense can practice against a running QB. Their Achilles heel is always playing against running QBs.
Good point. On that, at least, Belichick has been pretty consistent over the years (for example, the infamous Tebow experiment).
Bo Nix
The Pats could be doing this to play with the new rule at least to start the season. By keeping both Zappe and Cunningham on the practice squad, each could be elevated to take the backup role for three games. Corral on the main roster could remain inactive and serve as the emergency QB for each of those six games. If they brought in Colt McCoy, he’d be the backup for another three games. By the second half of the season, Corral would know the system and would be the backup. At that point, one of the others could be signed to the main roster as the emergency QB. Otherwise, they could seek opportunities elsewhere if they don’t want to stay around as injury insurance on the practice squad.
Dude, you are absolutely fixated on a rule that really just isn’t worth fixating on.