Poll: Who should be the Patriots backup QB?
The New England Patriots are certainly all-in on Mac Jones, because the picture behind the QB1 is getting murkier each day.
As of the NFL's cut day deadline, Mac was the only QB left standing in Foxborough as Bailey Zappe and Malik Cunningham were both waived. After none of the other teams bothered to place a claim on either player, they returned to the Patriots practice squad.
Then yesterday, the Pats signed Matt Corral, a 3rd Rd. pick by the Panthers in '22, who oddly enough was selected by Carolina using a pick they acquired from the Patriots.
The 24-year-old Ole Miss product missed his entire rookie season last year after suffering a Lisfranc injury in training camp. This year, he threw for 249 yards and 1 INT in limited preseason action, before getting cut by Carolina on Wednesday, one day after making the team's initial 53-man roster.
At Ole Miss, Corral threw for 3337 yards, 29 TD, 14 INT with a 70.9 completion percentage in 10 games as a junior in 2020. He followed it up by leading the Rebels to a 10-3 record during his senior season while passing for 3349 yards, 20 TD, 5 INT, and adding 614 yards and 11 TD rushing.
The 6'2", 220lbs Corral had a bit of buzz around him leading up to last year's draft, with some projections putting him into the 2nd Rd. But having never picked up a Patriots playbook before some point today, it's unlikely Corral will crack the opening day roster for New England.
Zappe is still likely to serve as the No. 2 at the outset of the season. In accordance with NFL practice squad rules, Zappe can be elevated to the active roster, then reverted to the practice squad three times. That buys the Pats until the end of September to figure out who Jones' understudy will be for the rest of the season. And let's not forget about Cunningham who is still lurking on the p-squad as well.
Who do you think should be the Pats' insurance policy at QB?