What About Matt Corral?

A look at how the Panthers 2022 third-round pick may factor into the team's plans in 2023.

Taking a quarterback in the third round doesn't always translate to finding the answer at the position and in Carolina's situation, they just needed to add a young guy to the room during last year's draft.

After passing up on Kenny Pickett in the first round to take left tackle Ikem Ekwonu, Carolina swung a deal with New England to climb up into the third round to select Ole Miss QB Matt Corral. 

At the time of the selection, I thought it was a low risk, high reward type of a move. I didn't necessarily fall in love with the tape in the months leading up to the draft and didn't really believe Corral could be a franchise quarterback.

In fact, here's my analysis of the selection following the draft last year.

"Personally, I'm not very high on him. In fact, I had him as the fourth-best quarterback in the class. I worry about him coming from an RPO centric offense that doesn't push the ball down the field or go through five and seven step drops and reading through progressions. It's going to take a while for Corral to really learn how to read coverages and know when to let it rip. At times, he had the turnover bug at Ole Miss. He has to avoid those games where he lets it become a serious problem. The good thing is, if they don't like how he is progressing in his rookie year and they have a top pick yet again, they can take another swing in a more talented quarterback class next year."

And he we are. A year later, Carolina appears to be back in the mix for a quarterback. Now unfortunately for the Panthers, they really don't know what they have in Corral. He suffered a Lisfranc injury in the preseason loss to New England, causing him to miss the entire season. When the team got out to a horrid 1-4 start and had a revolving door at QB due to injuries, it would have been a good opportunity to take a look at the rookie. Now, he may never take a regular season snap for the organization.

With a new coaching staff coming in, they're not going to know much about Corral and for him, he's going to be learning the offense all over again. Frank Reich and co. would be foolish to just bank on Corral being healthy and being the future of the franchise. They need to go add to the position be it free agency or the draft.

So, what will happen to the former Ole Miss star?

I think we'll see him battle for the backup job if they bring in a rookie. If they draft a quarterback, they'll likely bring back Sam Darnold or bring in another veteran to be the "bridge" to the first rounder. If they pass on taking a quarterback, which seems unlikely, then Corral will likely backup whichever veteran they decide to target on the trade market or in free agency. 

If it becomes clear that Corral is not going to have a future with the team, I could see the Panthers cutting ties with him at some point during his rookie contract and bring in a veteran to be the backup.

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