Matt Corral, balancing on Panthers QB bubble, has made ‘great progress.’ Is it enough?
Matt Corral admitted that he had “no idea” about whether or not he’d make the Panthers’ 53-man roster immediately after his team’s preseason finale Friday.
“I’ll just leave that up to the guys upstairs,” he said.
But he was sure of something else.
In his first full, healthy preseason — 350-plus days after sustaining a left foot injury that ended his rookie season before it began — the third-string quarterback was at peace knowing he was given the opportunity to “put my best foot forward.”
“You know, it wasn’t the best of what I thought I could do,” Corral told reporters after Carolina’s 26-17 home loss to the Detroit Lions. “But it is what it is. I’m just building on what I did, just keep focusing on myself, wherever I go, wherever I land, whether that’s here or somewhere else, just building on what I did.
“And if I do stay here, doing the best I can to be better for the offense, be better for this guy (pointing to Bryce Young), whatever it takes.”
The second-year quarterback out of Ole Miss was a bit subdued after the game Friday. Despite his solid final audition — one that upon film review doesn’t feel as underwhelming as his statline of 4-of-12 for 52 yards — Corral still had a few throws in his mind that he wish he had back.
Three, specifically.
The first was an in-break route to Shi Smith, which Corral said he wished he stepped up into the pocket and threw on target. It was a second-and-10, and although the throw was a little high, the window was tight, and Smith still skied to somehow get two hands on it to no avail. (Corral followed that miss up with a third-and-10 scramble for 27 yards — and then led his team to a score a few plays afterward.)
The second came on the first play of the fourth quarter: a play-action boot that saw him throw behind an open Javon Wims.
And the third came on a bench route — where the receiver comes off the line on the inside before heading vertical and then breaking to the sideline — to Gary Jennings. (“That one was a miss,” Corral said of the play later. “The other ones were bad misses.”)
Corral acknowledged that he made other positive plays Friday. Plays on the touchdown drive he led were among them. He was happy with his decision-making, too. When asked about his big run, he joked, “Left hoof’s fixed, man!”
But even still, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound quarterback spoke as if he knew he could prove more. Head coach Frank Reich seemed to agree Saturday morning.
“Really encouraged with Matt,” Reich said. “I think he’s made great progress. You know, Matt’s incredibly athletic. He’s got a really strong arm. I think he’s worked as hard as anybody in the building. He’s spent a lot of time in this building.
“(QB coach) Josh McCown has done a great job. Those two have put a lot of time in together. So happy with the progress he’s made.”
It’s difficult to look at Corral’s brief career without wondering “what could have been.” In a 2022 season when the Panthers were willing to try a bunch of options at quarterback — a position that reeled from rampant injury and inconsistency — Corral was hurt.
And then, of course, before he could get healthy, things happened: Carolina made a hope-instilling and potentially franchise-shifting move to obtain the first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft in hopes to use it on dazzling Alabama product Young. And the team then brought on Andy Dalton, a proven if past-his-prime signal-caller, in large part to mentor Young and serve as his direct understudy.
Common logic suggests the Panthers will retain a third quarterback, and that could very well be Corral. The 2022 Carolina draft pick could be the beneficiary of the new QB3 rule, which allows teams to roster an extra quarterback without impacting game-day roster limits — a reaction to former Panther Christian McCaffrey taking snaps out of the shotgun in the 49ers’ conference championship game a season ago.
Reich addressed these prospects Saturday.
“As far as keeping the third quarterback on the roster, obviously with the new rule, that’s something that has to be considered,” Reich said. “(General manager) Scott (Fitterer) and I have had several initial discussions about that.
“That’s a decision that will be made here in the next couple days. There are a lot of factors that go into that, but (we’re) happy with the progress that Matt has made.”
Roster cuts began Saturday morning. And more are expected to trickle through the weekend and early next week before the NFL’s 53-man rosters are due 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Will the Panthers opt to keep three quarterbacks? Could they add a QB off the waiver wire once all teams make their final cuts?
These questions, however legitimate, are outside of Corral’s control now.
So his focus is elsewhere.
“As far as I can tell, I’m just building on what I did (well),” Corral said, “and fixing the bad.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
