Over the course of the next few days, the Carolina Panthers will have several difficult decisions to make as they formulate their 53-man roster. One of those decisions involves the quarterback position and whether or not the team should carry three QBs.
This morning, I asked head coach Frank Reich of his evaluation on the man in question, Matt Corral, along with the value of carrying a third quarterback.
"Really encouraged with Matt. I think he's made great progress. Matt's incredibly athletic. He's got a really strong arm. I think he's worked as hard as anybody in the building. Josh McCown has done a great job and those two have put a lot of time in together, so happy with the progress that he's made. He's had a lot of snaps in the preseason and I think he's done a good job.
"As far as keeping the third quarterback on the roster, obviously with the new rule, it's something that has to be considered. Scott [Fitterer] and I have already had several initial discussions about that and that's a decision that will be made here in the next couple days. There's a lot of factors that go into that, but happy with the progress that Matt has made."
That new rule Reich mentioned allows teams to have a third quarterback dressed on gameday as an "emergency" QB. He wouldn't be allowed to enter the game unless the first two active quarterbacks are injured.
The full language of the rule is explained below.
One hour and 30 minutes prior to kickoff, each club is required to establish its Active List for the game by notifying the Referee of the players on its Inactive List for that game. Each club may also designate one emergency third quarterback from its 53-player Active/Inactive List (i.e., elevated players are not eligible for designation) who will be eligible to be activated during the game, if the club's first two quarterbacks on its game day Active List are not able to participate in the game due to injury or disqualification (activation cannot be a result of a head coach's in-game decision to remove a player from the game due to performance or conduct). If either of the injured quarterbacks is cleared by the medical staff to return to play, the emergency third quarterback must be removed from the game and is not permitted to continue to play quarterback or any other position, but is eligible to return to the game to play quarterback if another emergency third quarterback situation arises.
A club is not eligible to use these procedures if it carries three quarterbacks on its game day Active List [47- or 48-players in 2023].
If Corral is waived and brought back to the Panthers' practice squad, he would not be eligible for the emergency QB designation because he would be a standard elevation which the rule states is not permitted for this particular position.
It'll be interesting to see how the Panthers handle this situation, especially considering he's had limited opportunities to showcase his talent.
More must-reads: