Quarterback Evaluation: Matt Corral
Taking a closer look at Ole Miss quarterback prospect Matt Corral
Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral is one of the group of players in this draft class that is in the mix to be the top quarterback drafted. I have previously written about Corral when I got access to footage from his game against Liberty earlier this season, and a few of the common themes from that piece are still relevant in a large evaluation of his play. But the offense he plays means it’s not necessarily the easiest evaluation in terms of how his play will translate to the NFL game.
Ole Miss runs an offense that is very heavy in RPOs (run-pass options), quarterback-involved run schemes like read-option plays, and plenty of quick screen passes to the flats. That’s not a bad thing outright, NFL teams use these concepts and from a Washington Commanders perspective, Offensive Coordinator Scott Turner uses them fairly regularly too. But they’re rarely the bread and butter of the offense in the NFL, which is what they were at Ole Miss.
This means that a lot of Corral’s production and short passes came on plays like this.
This is one of the more common RPOs that Ole Miss runs. It’s a tight end pop pass, where Corral just has to read a linebacker to decide what to do. If the linebacker holds his spot, Corral hands the ball off to the running back into a favorable run look. If the linebacker works to fit his gap in the run scheme, Corral pulls the ball and throws it behind the linebacker to his tight end. The latter is exactly what happens here and Corral is able to make the read and quickly get the ball out into the tight end’s hands.
Those aren’t completely useless plays in terms of evaluating a quarterback, because we can see that he can make a read and get the ball out quickly, which is a good trait. However, when the majority of the offense is based on this type of play, there’s only so much to be learned about a quarterback from those plays. When the offense is oversaturated with those types of plays, it can hurt a quarterback’s development. Corral was typically asked to focus on a single defender for his read, which meant he wasn’t always working through progressions from his first read to his second and third. His anticipation suffered because instead of running plays where he had to learn a full progression read, understand where the weak spot in the defense was and anticipate which receiver would come open, he was just reading a single defender and getting the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible.
On this play, Ole Miss runs a play that’s not too dissimilar from a variation of the popular Y Cross concept. To the left, the outside receiver runs a quick hitch while the slot receiver runs a slot fade into the vacated space. To the right, the slot receiver runs a deep over route with the outside receiver running a deep dig in behind the slot receiver. Corral initially looks to his left, but it’s quickly apparent the slot fade isn’t available. He then resets back to his right where he locates the slot receiver working over the middle. Corral appears to stick on the slot receiver for a while, despite having a trailing defender close by and the deep safety being in position to drive down on the route. That should be enough information for Corral to know to work outside to the dig, which should be running open as the slot receiver has all the attention inside. The dig route does indeed break open, but Corral steps up in the pocket and opts to tuck the ball and run instead of anticipating the dig route would come open and making the throw.
This isn’t to say Corral can’t anticipate throwing windows, just that he wasn’t asked to do it often in college and will have some inconsistencies in that area as he develops in the NFL. One positive of this offense though is that we saw just how mobile Corral is. He was frequently features on read-option and other quarterback run schemes. One of their favorites was a QB draw scheme.
Ole Miss routinely liked to try and spread out the defense as much as possible, sending receivers wide and outside, often using empty sets too, only to then run a quarterback draw with Corral. While Corral isn’t a Lamar Jackson type of runner with 4.3 speed and outstanding elusiveness in the open field, he’s certainly a capable runner. This play shows just that. Ole Miss invites the defense to rush up the field in an apparent pass play before the running back leads the way for Corral to run up the middle. He follows the back, who makes a solid block for him and Corral is able to pick up 25 yards before being under any sort of threat of contact. He slides to keep himself protected and picks up a strong gain.
Scott Turner is perfectly familiar with what an athletic quarterback can offer to an offense, given he coached Cam Newton in Carolina. He’ll have plenty of quarterback run schemes in his offense, so Corral would be a fit for that. But with his frame, he’s not necessarily someone an NFL team would look to feature in a quarterback-heavy run scheme like Lamar Jackson or previously Robert Griffin III in Washington. Instead it would be on supplemental plays here and there.
But that mobility can help in other areas too. Corral frequently displays the ability to avoid sacks by either stepping up in the pocket or rolling out and scrambling if needed.
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