Before Saturday, Carolina Panthers quarterback Matt Corral hadn’t taken a snap in an NFL game for nearly a year—356 days, to be exact. But he’s back, and it feels good.
The second-year passer returned to the field for the first time since sustaining a Lisfranc injury last preseason, which prematurely closed the book on his rookie campaign. After the outing, one where he took the bulk of Carolina’s snaps under center, Corral was just about beaming.
“Ah, man, it felt good,” he said. “It felt good to finally get back out there and be out there with the guys. Bullets are flyin’, you get that adrenaline rush. It was good. It was good to be back. Lot of stuff to clean up.”
The bullets certainly were flying at Corral, who ate four sacks from the New York Jets defense this afternoon. Nonetheless, the 2022 third-rounder admirably toughed it out—completing 15 of his 22 throws for 126 yards and an interception in the 27-0 loss.
As far as what he has to clean up, Corral went on to add that he has to see the field a bit better to close out the summer.
“I gotta clean up my eyes,” he stated. “A lot of guys in the locker room were sayin’ . . . the O-line was comin’ up to me and sayin’ they could make it a lot easier. It’s my job to get the ball out. And, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what they do. I can help them a lot more just by cleaning out my eyes and making quicker decisions.”
