Checking in on Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral's NFL Draft stock
The college football season has entered its final stage with bowl games on the horizon, meaning the inevitable turn to the offseason and NFL Draft boards is near.
Ole Miss does have one final game left in the 2021 campaign, an unknown New Year’s Six bowl to be exact, but while we wait, let’s check in on Matt Corral’s draft status.
The Rebel quarterback announce the Vanderbilt game was his last in an Ole Miss uniform, confirming what was long expected.
Corral will playing on Sundays next fall.
Of course, he hasn’t made that official distinction, and some holdouts remain, with the hope there is some odd wiggle room for him to pull an A.J. Brown four years later and announce he is coming back for one last ride.
But, that’s not happening.
So with that in mind, Corral, entering this year’s draft, adds to a quarterback class that many pundits have deemed weak and does not include the marquee, splashy names.
A weak quarterback class might be TV networks’ loss, but it is also Corral’s gain, as many mock drafts have affirmed.
Throughout the season, Corral was behind Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett in the draft order and quarterback rankings. But as the season rolled on, Corral started overtaking Pickett and also put Liberty’s Malik Willis behind him after the Flames’ performance in Oxford last month.
In most recent draft projections, Corral could be destined to begin his NFL career in the NFC.
More specifically, the NFC East.
ESPN’s Jordan Reid tabbed Corral to the Washington Football Team at the No. 8 pick in his mock draft released in mid-November. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler also has Corral heading to WFT in his latest mock up this week.
The problem with mock drafts in December is the NFL’s regular season is still more than a month away from ending, and the final draft order, regarding the teams not making the playoffs, will not be set until January.
So, Corral may end up drafted by Washington, however, he could also wind up holding another jersey on the stage come late April.
Time will tell, but one thing seems to be certain or at least tracking in this direction: Corral could potentially be the third quarterback drafted in the Top 10 in Ole Miss history and the first not named Manning.
