SEPTEMBER 10: Howe reports that Corral was absent from the Patriots’ facility on Friday and Saturday, meaning he missed out on practice, walkthrough and team meetings in advance of today’s contest. He adds New England is still determining Corral’s future with the organization. Given the left squad designation, the team will have time to sort out its next move. Kyed adds, meanwhile, that the Patriots never seemed to be contemplating waiving Corral, despite the report from earlier on Saturday that they were doing so. This situation will remain worth watching until further clarity emerges.
SEPTEMBER 9: Patriots second-year cornerback Jack Jones suffered a hamstring injury on Wednesday at practice that immediately put his game status in doubt for tomorrow’s season opener, according to Jeff Howe of The Athletic. After confirming that Jones wouldn’t be available in Week 1, Howe speculated that a multi-week absence could be in the cards for the young defender. Well, Mike Reiss of ESPN was able to confirm today that Jones has been placed on injured reserve, guaranteeing he will miss at least the first four games of the 2023 season. 
The loss of Jones certainly hurts the quality of the team’s cornerback depth, but overall, the Patriots still look strong at the position. With rookie first-round pick Christian Gonzalez joining veteran Jonathan Jones in the starting lineup, New England should be set up well for Week 1. The team also has Marcus Jones and Jalen Mills providing depth behind the starters.
The Patriots’ transaction announcement also disclosed that they are placing quarterback Matt Corral on the exempt/left squad list. According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Corral reportedly left the team without notice. This makes Corral’s “not injury related” appearance on the practice injury report this week make a bit more sense. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network explained that going this route immediately clears a roster spot for New England without the need to place Corral on waivers.
The Patriots filled one of the open two roster spots by signing practice squad quarterback Bailey Zappe to the active roster. Last year’s fourth-round pick out of Western Kentucky will now be the primary backup behind starting quarterback Mac Jones despite being released during final roster cuts back in August.
To fill the other roster spot, the team signed practice squad running back Ty Montgomery to the active roster, as well. Montgomery will provide depth and variety off the bench behind Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliott. While both Stevenson and Elliott have shown an ability to receive out of the backfield at some point in their careers, Montgomery clearly has an edge at that ability after converting from wide receiver after his rookie year.
Finally, the team will reportedly only be using one of their two allowed practice squad promotions for tomorrow. Veteran linebacker/special teamer Calvin Munson will get the call up for the season opener against the Eagles.
Matt just couldn’t be Corral’d.
This joke was just “OK”
Fetch it a tombstone
If you think that was bad you should see some of the horribly unfunny puns “DCartrow” comes up with on the baseball rumors site.
Well, I guess that it wasn’t much of a competition after all. Pretty easy to win a job when your competition leaves early.
lol
If this is a trick to get Corral to the practice squad without exposing him to waivers, it’s pretty shady. Then again, if anyone truly wants him, they could sign him to the active roster off the Patriots’ practice squad. Still, it smells bad.
None of us know all the details yet, but I highly doubt they’d be able to do this unless he quite literally left the team without explanation. And since he’s on the exempt list, he wouldn’t be on the practice squad so no one could poach him from there. Right now it just sounds like he’s pretty much in limbo.
They cut him so he’s a FA. It’s pretty simple really. What does he care what the Patriots call him.
He’s not a free agent. He’s on the exempt/left squad list. It opens a roster spot but he’s not available to other teams; it’s basically like how the Chiefs have Chris Jones on the exempt/did not report list. Jones isn’t a free agent and neither is Corral.
You say it’s pretty simple but you still don’t seem to understand it lol
I could of sworn I saw somewhere that they released him but now I can’t find it so your totally right. My bad.
It was initially reported by some that he was released, but then updated and corrected.
So I wasn’t wrong. I’m never wrong. I thought I was wrong once but I was mistaken. LOL It made absolutely no sense that they would PU a QB a week before the season if they were going to cut him. Even a QB who went to Oxford couldn’t pick up an NFL playbook in a week.
COULD HAVE
Ummmmmm, Didn’t they cut him? Was he supposed to hang around and wait for them to call him back? Sounds like more Patriots shenanigans to me. They never met a rule book they didn’t try and circumvent. No QB on Earth could pick up a teams playbook in one week. Yet they picked him up. Does that sound rational to anybody? WTF
So have Corral not show up and suspend him and then after today you cut zappe again and reinstate corral?
Sad because it’s been quite a few years but sometimes the shady just gets stuck on a team.
I’m guessing corral didn’t show cause he knew what was coming
At least while he is injured JACK JONES
can at least fall back on his singing career.
My original comment was in homage to your fine work.
So why doesn’t a reporter pick up a phone and call Corral or his agent and find out what is going on?