Why Washington Commanders should draft Matt Corral

Let’s start with the off-the-field stuff, or the “leadership” aspects of the position that reveal themselves on the field as well. It’s no secret that Matt Corral is the competitor that many coaches and fans absolutely love.

From getting into a fight with Wayne Gretzky’s son in high school to playing through injuries and ultimately playing in a meaningless Bowl Game that ended his junior year in dramatic fashion, Matt Corral is the leader that you *need* at the QB position.

As we transition to some on-the-field things, Ron Rivera and company look for leadership in all shapes and sizes, but especially from their QB’s. It’s what cost Dwayne Haskins his job in 2020 more so than his play, it’s why Rivera stuck with Heinicke for 16 games despite having opportunities to go to Kyle Allen. Leadership matters, especially so in the Commander’s locker room.

On the field, Corral is an immediate fit for Scott Turner’s Air Coryell offense. It’s an offense that thrives on pushing the ball down the field, especially at the intermediate level, timing concepts, and in Washington’s case, heavy play-action.

Now, I’m not going to compare Ole Miss’s ultra-heavy RPO concepts to NFL-style play-action concepts, but Corral and Turner for that matter have felt very comfortable operating under heavy play-fakes, quick decision making that manufactures easy throws for their QB’s and heavily structures their offense.

Within Washington’s structure offensively, Corral fits. Corral dominated the intermediate passing game, a staple of Washington’s offense, last season. He threw for 997 yards, completed over 60% of his throws while being pressured on 14 of his 88 pass attempts at 10-19 yards.

In addition, Taylor Heinicke and Washington, in turn,  ran the third most play-action fakes last season among qualified starting QB’s. Over 34% of Washington’s passing plays involved play-action, and while the RPO and play-action game is different, in a sense they do breathe the same air.

Corral dealt with heavy, very heavy usage of RPO concepts in College, as over 60% of his dropbacks included what Pro Football Focus deems “play-action”. While I do not have the exact number of RPO’s Washington ran last year, I can assure you that Scott Turner included a healthy dose of the RPO game into the Commanders’ offense last season after dealing with a limited QB in Taylor Heinicke.

Continuing on, Corral excelled last season at being calculated on his deep-throws. He pushed the ball down the field on throws of 20+ yards on just 13% of his dropbacks, but he had 17 big-time throws when launching the football down the field.

He also completed 41% of his throws on attempts of 20+ yards while also committing just two turnover-worthy plays according to Pro Football Focus. By no means has Washington’s offense been a gunslinger’s dream, but they’ve looked to attack the intermediate game heavily while taking a tactical approach to their deep passing game, something Corral can seamlessly transition into as a QB under Turner’s offense.

Before we enter the final phase of Corral’s fit within Washington’s offense and why he fits a lot of Washington’s needs, I want to touch on the turnover-worthy play portion of the previous paragraph. Corral has made significant, very significant, improvements as a thrower in terms of his decision-making.