The start of Matt Corral‘s professional football career has not gone according to plan.
Though he was a third-round choice in 2022, Corral has yet to play in a regular season contest in the NFL, and he recently signed with the United Football League’s Birmingham Stallions (as relayed by Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk).
Corral was selected by the Matt Rhule-era Panthers, and given the team’s quarterback difficulties in 2022, he likely would have had the opportunity to take regular-season snaps at some point. Unfortunately, a preseason Lisfranc injury ended his rookie campaign before it started.
Rhule, of course, was fired in the middle of the 2022 season, and Carolina named Frank Reich its head coach last January before signing veteran QB Andy Dalton in free agency and drafting Bryce Young with the No. 1 overall pick.
Corral saw significant action in each of the Panthers’ three preseason games in 2023, and while Reich was reportedly pleased with Corral’s progress, the Ole Miss product was waived at the end of the preseason slate.
The club was interested in retaining Corral via a practice squad deal if he cleared waivers, but the Patriots swooped in with a waiver claim.
While Corral’s availability was enough for New England to eschew its previous plans to add a veteran passer to round out the depth chart, something went awry.
Corral missed multiple practices leading up to Week 1 and was absent from team meetings, which led to his placement on the exempt/left squad list. He was subsequently waived from that list.
After he cleared waivers, it appeared he would join the Pats’ taxi squad, but that never came to fruition. That was the last we had heard of Corral before the UFL announced he was joining the Stallions.
The UFL, which is the product of the recent USFL-XFL merger, will begin play next month. The Stallions won the USFL championship in 2023 and seem poised to allow Corral to showcase his talents as he (presumably) seeks to return to the sport’s highest level.
If the 25-year-old should impress, he may pique the interest of NFL teams, especially given his draft pedigree (even if the 2022 class of collegiate signal-callers was a weak one.)
Birmingham is also rostering Adrian Martinez, who played quarterback for Nebraska and Kansas State before signing with the Lions as a UDFA last April.
He was waived before the start of the regular season. 2020 UDFAs J’Mar Smith and Jalen Morton are the other two players on the Stallions’ QB depth chart, so Corral certainly appears to have the edge for the starting quarterback job.
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