From Cowboys' Jaylon Smith to NFL Draft's Matt Corral: What's 'The Right Way'?

Corral, as it turns out, is fortunate. Ole Miss says X-rays on his leg are negative. No serious damage, it seems. That makes him more lucky that so many others, and even more lucky than Jaylon Smith.

Matt Corral "did it the right way. He cares about the right way.''

So say the supporters of the idea of NFL-bound college kids playing one last game for Ol' State U no matter the injury risk.

That's what Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral did in Saturday's Sugar Bowl loss to Baylor. But he lasted less than one quarter after sustaining a right leg injury.

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And as he was carted off, smart observers paused to reflect on both his great Rebels career ... and an NFL future that might be hanging in the balance.

"The right way''?

Corral is the top-ranked quarterback in the 2022 draft class, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. He could end up being the QB savior for the Washington Football Team or the Houston Texans or whomever. 

Let's say Houston takes him with the No. 3 pick in the April NFL Draft. That contract is projected to be worth $38.4 million. That's $38.4 million more than anybody will pay a guy who might've sustained a career-ending injury playing "amateur football.''

Corral, as it turns out, is fortunate. Ole Miss says X-rays on his leg are negative. No serious damage, it seems. That makes him more lucky that so many others, and even more lucky than Jaylon Smith, the shocking second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2016 - shocking because there were some NFL teams that were not going to draft him at all, thinking he may never walk properly again, after his leg was shredded in a "meaningless'' season-ending Fiesta Bowl game while playing for Notre Dame.

His medical and spiritual miracle did allow him to forge a return from the injury, and after 18 months of rehab - which included a long period during which he had "drop foot'' and struggles to put on his own sock - he became a Dallas contributor. 

But even the difference between where he would've been drafted (top-five vs. high second-round) is financially substantial.

The four-year rookie contract for a top-five player that year was worth $25 million.

Jaylon's four-year deal paid him $6.5 million.

Late in the second quarter of this Sugar Bowl, Corral hobbled back onto the field with the assistance of crutches. He'd removed his shoulder pads. But he remained dressed in his football pants, and with tears streaming down his cheeks, accepted the standing ovation from Rebels fans.

"I won't just leave,'' Corral said of his decision to play. "I know what's on the other side (the NFL), but I'm gonna give these guys everything I've got.''

And what Matt Corral almost gave them was his leg.

Corral was the leader of a 10-2 Ole Miss team, finished seventh in the 2021 Heisman Trophy voting, and was good for 31 total touchdowns, 3,333 passing yards and 597 rushing yards. He did so many things "the right way,'' and now as he rehabs and prepares for the 2022 NFL Draft - hopefully with no setbacks that could cause him to slide in the selection process, costing him millions - the rest of us can ponder the words of ESPN's Joe Tessitore (above), and of ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard.

"This era of players doesn't love football,'' they agreed, in an outrageously sweeping statement.

Tessitore, Herbstreit and Howard are all paid by ESPN ... even though they surely "love football.'' ESPN has a vested interest in promoting their televised bowl games as being something other than "meaningless.'' And just as they all have finances and "vested interests'' and "love of football'' intersecting, so it, seems do some NFL-bound student/athletes.

And maybe, for Jaylon Smith and Matt Corral and anybody who doesn't follow their path, there is no singular "right way.''

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