Philadelphia Eagles: Matt Corral rumors feel like a smokescreen

The Philadelphia Eagles are set at quarterback. Jalen Hurts is their guy, they are going to use the forthcoming season to further test his mettle in a second season under Nick Sirianni, and if he falters, then and only then will they address the situation again in 2023, when the quarterback class is much stronger… unless they draft a QB with the 15th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, of course.

Therein lies the problem fans, non-fans, and opposing front offices across the NFL have entering the draft: Howie Roseman alone knows what Howie Roseman plans to do.

The Eagles have been incredibly complimentary of Hurts so far this offseason. They’ve also had meetings with multiple quarterbacks heading back to the Senior Bowl, and some in the front office reportedly view Matt Corral as the “hands-down the best quarterback in the draft,” according to uStadium. Which one is the smoke, and which is the fire?

Unfortunately, we don’t truly know until April 29th, when the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft is officially on the books, but in my humble opinion, the interest in Matt Corral feels like a bit of a smokescreen by a Philadelphia Eagles team looking to both elicit trade interest for the 15th and 18th picks and hide their true intentions with the aforementioned picks.

Matt Corral feels like a weird fit with the Philadelphia Eagles.

On paper, there’s a lot to like about Matt Corral.

He’s thrown for 3,000-plus yards over each of the last two seasons at Ole Miss, has shored up his interception percentage from 2020 to 2021 – going from 14 to five – and has the sort of backyard football some teams have come to love from prospects coming from the college level, boasting an ability to make “trick throws” and keep plays alive with his legs from outside of the pocket.

Do you want a quarterback with a big arm who can theoretically make all of the throws? Corral fits that bill. How about an effective rusher who has averaged 560 rushing yards and 7.5 touchdowns over the past two seasons? Corral did that, too, including 11 rushing touchdowns in 2021. Goodness, Corral has such a love for the game of football that he played his team’s bowl game with nothing to gain from the contest but the respect of his teammates and narrowly dodged catastrophe after being carted off the field with a right leg injury.

Is Corral small? Yes, at 6-foot-2, 205 pounds, Corral would be one of the smaller starting quarterbacks in the NFL, regardless of how you calculate it. Did he play in an air raid offense that relied much more on the RPO and easy reads with schemed open receivers? Yes as well; Corral has far less experience with pro-style offensive concepts than players like Kenny Pickett or even Carson Strong and may take some time to translate to the NFL level. But goodness, for a team who missed out on drafting Zach Wilson in 2021, Corral might be “your guy,” as he checks most of the boxes of that new-school brand of quarterback.

Could the Philadelphia Eagles theoretically like a quarterback like Corral? Sure, his game is relatively comparable to that of Jalen Hurts with fewer abilities as a runner but a “purer” arm, so inserting him into the scheme Nick Sirianni has already crafted would be fairly seamless, but does Howie Roseman really want to invest a first-round pick on another backup quarterback, two years removed from using his second-round pick on his current starting quarterback?

I hope not.

Now granted, is it possible the Eagles could draft a quarterback like Corral and then trade Hurts to a team like Seattle for a pick and/or a player? Totally, the NFL has seen more quarterback movement in 2022 than in 2020 and 2019 combined, so adding one more starting quarterback swap wouldn’t be all that surprising. But why would the team do that? Why would they select a quarterback in a class noted for its lack of premier prospects and place him into such a situation? Do they trust Gardner Minshew to hold things down until a rookie is ready?

Furthermore, if the Eagles were to decide Hurts isn’t it, why would they go with a quarterback who has a similar set of skills instead of a player like Pickett, who has a big arm and a ton of experience in a pro-style scheme? Pickett made every throw Sirianni called for Hurts during his time at Pitt and would theoretically unlock more of the plays the Indianapolis Colts ran when the Eagles’ head coach was their offensive coordinator.

Throw that all together with the Saints trade Roseman already made to add more draft picks in 2023, and the idea of using a first-round draft pick on another quarterback instead of a position of need like WR, CB, or DT just feels like a poor allocation of assets.

Who knows, maybe calling the Philadelphia Eagles’ interest in Matt Corral a smokescreen is, in fact, a smokescreen. Maybe Howie Roseman really does like Corral, and folks calling his interest fake are helping to hide his true interest from other general managers who feel like they can wait for the Ole Miss product to slide to him. Or maybe the front office has an interest in another quarterback entirely and is leaking the name Corral to keep other GMs from looking too deep into their interest in, say, Malik Willis. And the worst part? With weeks, not months left until the Jacksonville Jaguars officially go on the clock, deciphering the true noise from the static will continue to grow harder.