Patriots sign Matt Corral after cutting the former Ole Miss star

Matt Corral and the New England Patriots just can’t quit each other. As of mid-week — of this week — the reserve quarterback is back on the roster.

The situation certainly defines fluid. The Patriots added the former Ole Miss star back to the team sometime Tuesday, a day after releasing him. He cleared waivers during the 24 hours he wasn’t with the team.

But that’s just a couple of days worth of the Matt Corral drama. This all started when the Panthers cut Corral, their third-round pick in 2022, to make the league-mandated roster of 53 players. Meanwhile, Belichick waived two of his three quarterbacks, Bailey Zappe and Malik Cunningham, while keeping Mac Jones. He then signed Corral, while sticking Zappe and Cunningham on the practice squad.

But two days before the Patriots played their season opener, Corral no-showed at practice. This was after Zappe passed him on the roster. By the next day, after Corral’s abrupt absence, the Patriots placed the quarterback on the the inactive list, designating him as “exempt/left squad.”

Belichick never really explained what was happening. Belichick told reporters. that the quarterback was dealing with a “personal matter.” However, Belichick did say that the Patriots had been in touch with Matt Corral. So the team did solve part of the mystery.

While Corral was off the team, the Patriots signed former Notre Dame star Ian Book as a backup quarterback. But Belichick waived him earlier this week. While on the practice squad, Corral will make about $12,000 per week. He can be elevated to the main roster three times in a season. Or, Belichick can keep him on the 53-man roster or waive him.

Obviously, Belichick sees some invaluable skills in Matt Corral that would make him go to this much trouble. Corral has talked openly about dealing with his own depression and how it’s impacted his personal life and his football career. Analysts speculated that Corral’s mental issues might have caused his drop in the 2022 draft. He was thought to be a first rounder, but slipped to the third.

In a 2022 interview with Yahoo, Corral said, “I was still training, and it just felt like I was just going through the motions. It just felt like I was being stagnant. There was no purpose as to what I was doing.”

Albert Breer, who covers the NFL for Sports Illustrated, said earlier this month that Belichick initially placed Corral on the exempt list out of “fairness for everything Matt Corral has gone through over the last six or seven years.”

Corral never played in a regular season game for the Panthers. And when Carolina drafted Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick this year, Corral immediately became expendable.

Meanwhile, the Patriots head to MetLife Stadium for a game against the Jets this Sunday.