The Patriots made one of the more surprising moves on roster deadline day when they cut 2022 fourth-round pick Bailey Zappe. The QB eventually landed on New England’s practice squad, and it sounds like he’s now back where he started.
[RELATED: Bill Belichick Addresses Patriots’ Decision To Waive Bailey Zappe]
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Patriots have signed Zappe to their active roster. This is not a standard practice squad elevation, which was the route the organization was expected to take with the backup quarterback. Instead, the Patriots are giving Zappe his spot back on the 53-man roster.
In a corresponding move, the team has waived quarterback Matt Corral, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). The 2022 third-round pick took Zappe’s spot on the roster following roster deadline day.
After moving on from Zappe and undrafted free agent Malik Cunningham, the Patriots were left with Mac Jones as the only quarterback on the active roster. The Patriots later revealed some of their logic when they claimed Corral, a former Panthers draftee, off waivers.
The Corral acquisition was certainly an indictment on Zappe, but it seemed like the incumbent still had a firm hold on the QB2 role despite sitting on the practice squad. After all, Zappe has a year of familiarity with the organization, even if the team did hire Bill O’Brien as their new offensive coordinator this offseason.
Corral would have only had a week-plus to learn New England’s system, making it unlikely that the 2022 third-round pick would be counted on to immediately serve as Jones’ backup. Further, the Ole Miss product missed his entire rookie season due to a Lisfranc injury, so the QB was also expected to be brought along slowly during the 2023 campaign.
Indeed, the quarterback didn’t have enough time to catch up, leading to him sacrificing his roster spot today. Per ESPN’s Mike Reiss, the first indication of a QB2 change came at practice yesterday when Corral was absent. The Patriots could be counting on Corral passing through waivers and landing back on their practice squad, although that’s just speculation on my part. Joe Person of The Athletic notes that Panthers GM Scott Fitterer previously expressed interest in bringing Corral back to the practice squad.
Zappe added some intrigue to the Patriots’ quarterbacks room last season. With Jones and New England’s offense struggling, Zappe didn’t look completely lost during his two starts. He won both of those appearances, and in four games, he finished with 781 passing yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions while completing 70.7 percent of his passes.
However, the Patriots’ hiring of O’Brien seemed to be a vote of confidence for Jones heading into the 2023 campaign. We learned recently that the coordinator’s offense specifically caters to Jones’ strengths, and that system doesn’t necessarily fit Zappe’s playing style. There was also some speculation that former offensive coordinators Matt Patricia and Joe Judge let Zappe run a similar-style offense to what he ran in college, perhaps explaining some of his rookie success.
Something something genius something something everyone else just playing checkers.
That genius is no better than Jeff Fisher.
I’m looking forward to year 4–in a row– of 500 football from Bill only to hear ‘it’s not his fault, he’s the best ever!’.
If that happens, arty, nobody would say that you didn’t call it.
Thank you. What do you expect from NE record wise? I say +/-1 game over .500. No doubt in my mind.
I agree, actually. Their division looks pretty tough, improved from last year for all teams involved. I don’t know if the Pats improved enough roster-wise to compete for the top spot, but I can say that they definitely improved coaching-wise.
Miami is kind of the wildcard for me. They should be much better, but it’s hard to find room for them and New England after Buffalo and New York. Without checking the schedule, which is important, it seems like NE should be battling Miami for third. I hate to predict records before watching a team play, but that’s what feels comfortable right now before watching anything. I can tell you that a winning record would probably feel like a big success for most observers. As an outsider, I’d have simply being competitive as a goal for them this year in the new system.
I’m glad you do. If Bill is around .500 again this year, and most think that’s going to happen, then he will have 9 seasons of being a .500 HC. That is not the definition of best ever.
HoF HC’s that didn’t always have great QB’s are the real coaches. Shula in both Baltimore and Miami. He went to Miami in 1970. 13 years before Marino. Check out his record. Joe Gibbs won 3 SB w/ 3 different QB’s. Parcells always used ‘grizzled vets’. And built 3 different organizations from basement to playoffs. As for modern coaches, still coaching. McVay and A. Reid almost always have playoff teams and taken different QB’s to the SB.
That’s coaching. Not relying on Tom do to everything.
Maybe they Released Zappe to void his contract then place him on practice Squad. Thetly claim Corral as a procedure move just in case Zappe got picked up. Obviously didnt see what they liked in Corral in practice lack of experiance in Games dont fit well as QB2 hence they go back to Zappe on a cheaper contract as QB2 hope to place Corral at Practice squad hoping he learns the Offense.. Orr maybe Billecheck is tanking this year soo they get Caleb Williams. Which i think is far fetched.
Why do that though? He has the same minimum contracts and the bonus money too. It wasn’t a “Chess vs Checkers” move. It was boneheaded. You cut some other bottom feeder to get the third QB for the week.
It seems to me that they simply tried to get cute and it failed. I won’t try to pinpoint it. Belichick has done these weird tiny transactions for years, and they don’t always work, but this seemed just strange from the start.
I suppose he got lucky that nobody tried to sign Zappe during this whole affair.
Bill playing 1D chess.
Zappe > Jones
Maybe – Billy boy has dementia like his buddy Joey and they both need to be led around and monitored
Seems Bellichek has been tanking all the pre-brady yrs n all the post-brady yrs, losing very convincingly, plus even if they did get #1 overall pick GM Bill would choose DE that draft gurus had 2nd rnd grade on n would be cut frm team within 3yrs after having nvr started a gm, it’s not like he’s splitting OC duties between DL cch n n former DC, the mans a genius n a hell of a cheat … crazy like a fox when provided other teams 1st 15 scripted plays 4start of gm
Did you have a stroke about halfway through that or something?
I had a stroke trying to read it.
Poor Corral. Who takes a bid on him next? Giants? Seahawks? Bears?
To be honest, I never really considered Corral to be an NFL style quarterback. He is very dependent on the RPO, or at least was in college, for his success.
However, in terms of playing style, those teams you mentioned do use a lot of that. The Giants did last year, though that may not stick as they see Jones get more acclimated with Daboll through his extension. I doubt that Daboll wants his $40 million quarterback getting hit constantly, so I would consider his use of it to decrease. The Pats, ironically, used some of it last year, so this maybe indicates that they’ll retain a little under O’Brien-or maybe that he rejected it, leading to Corral’s own rejection. The Seahawks used it in tandem with traditional routes to help cater to Smith, but Smith is not an RPO quarterback on his face.
Three teams I peg for sure as running it this year are the Bears, the Eagles, and the Colts. The Bears have obvious reasons-Fields is a running quarterback with average passing mechanics and a fluid receiver room. I don’t doubt that Chicago tries to move him into more of a passing role, but RPOs suit him at this point in his career to take advantage of what his legs offer to the offense. Shane Steichen used a lot of RPO in Philadelphia with Hurts, and is now employing Anthony Richardson as a running starter in Indy. Corral is dissimilar as a runner to Richardson in terms of size, but he can certainly run those RPOs better than Minshew. However, I very highly doubt that he usurps Minshew for that role, given Minshew’s resume and familiarity with Steichen from Philly. The Eagles obviously did a lot of these plays with Hurts last year, and Corral is more similar to him and Fields than Richardson due to his size.
Those are a few teams that fit him, style wise. Of course, given his college success, a lot of teams could just take a flier on him as a third QB for little risk and see what he could do. At the end of the day, a return to Carolina seems likely to me, as well. They expressed an interest and they know Corral.
Meh. Carolina doesn’t value him. Maybe sitting behind Mahomes or Fields will help him
I don’t think that most teams necessarily value a practice squad quarterback very highly. If they did, they’d put him on the roster. But Carolina expressed an interest in bringing Corral back, so if that were true, then there’s a chance. They may very well would have liked him, but not enough to install Corral as a backup. That’s how most teams treat their practice squad guys. Having familiarity helps.
Whether that’s best for Corral is another story, but a team has to want him for him to go there. I think that there’s a limit to development that goes on with practice squad players without them moving to the active roster, so going to K.C. probably doesn’t do much to help. Chicago, on the other hand, is a team that has a QB with a similar skillset.
Reich basically says he loves what he has in young and Dalton. Got to read between the lines a lot of these coaches say rhetoric and crap to the media lol
True enough, that’s fair.
Yeah. Feel bad for corral. Dude was doomed from the start
Corral has been officially put on the exempt/left squad list. He has not been waived according to Mass Live Sports