Rhule Discusses Matt Corral's Debut + Plan Moving Forward
The much-anticipated debut of quarterback Matt Corral didn't go as planned, but he did get the job done even if it meant getting some help from the Washington defense and the right foot of Zane Gonzalez.
Corral's first pass was a strike to Keith Kirkwood for a first down on a curl route. After that, it was quite the welcome to the NFL with eight, yes, eight consecutive incompletions to end the day. In his defense, the offensive line he was working with was very sloppy and allowed a ton of pressure. At the end of the day, it's not going to be used as an excuse. Matt Rhule wants the quarterbacks to do the best they can with the hand they get dealt.
“I think obviously with every guy, the more reps they get the better they’re going to play," said Rhule. "But everyone is in the situation they’re in, and they’re all in this league for a reason. Part of this league is whatever you’re given, you have to go produce when it comes. So, they’re going to get what they get, each guy is going to get what they get. It’s going to change at different times. As we go through the pre-season, the starters sometimes they’ll play, sometimes they won’t. Every guy is going to get what they can get. I always believe highly in what our players can do and I’m sure for a lot of these guys the only thing that can simulate the game speed of today is getting into the game. So, I’m sure you’ll see a lot of our young players on defense and offense. I think next week you’ll see them probably play a little faster, a little more confident when they play New England, especially after that joint practice.”
One of the many reasons the Panthers didn't give Corral more time was to allow P.J. Walker to showcase his talent so that he can find another team to latch onto once he gets cut. The coaching staff or front office will never say it, but it's the cold hard truth and to be honest, he deserves that opportunity. Plus, there's no rush to throw Corral into heavy game action when he's not completely ready. He's had very limited reps in training camp and until that workload increases, there's no reason to throw him out there for a longer period of time. The last thing you want to do is give him extended game reps before he's ready for it and it kills his confidence.
As far as the plan for Corral, Rhule will keep that close to the vest.
“I can’t talk about what we’ll do moving forward. We wanted to give him a quarter. We wanted to get him in there. Things weren’t real easy, we didn’t do a great job and Washington in the fourth quarter kind of changed what they were doing. They had played a lot of single linebacker blitzes and bringing zero blitzes and blitzing the house. So, a lot more for a young quarterback to have to deal with. You know, he moved us down there and got us in field goal range by whatever means it took. He got hit in the face and got 15, but he did get us down there. So, we’ll build off it and I’m sure the game will continue to slow down. As far as what our plan is going forward, we will talk about that later.”
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