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The New Orleans Saints were a bastion of consistency with Sean Payton at the helm, but now the Payton era is over after 16 years as head coach. Dennis Allen is now the head coach, with Pete Carmichael Jr. finally being given the keys to the offense. Carmichael has been in New Orleans as offensive coordinator since 2009, but until now it was Payton calling plays. However, it's well known that Carmichael likes his quarterbacks to have a quick release, and in this 2022 NFL Draft class, there's none quicker than Ole Miss product Matt Corral.
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Why Saints should trade up for Matt Corral in 2022 NFL Draft
1. Quick release
There has been plenty of mocks where Corral is available at either of the Saints' current first-round picks, those being 16th and 19th overall, but there have been others where Corral is even the first quarterback off the board. If there is a run on signal callers in the picks from 5-10 overall, where all four teams are expected to acquire a quarterback in some capacity, be it through the draft or a potential trade for Baker Mayfield, the Saints may be pressed to get their guy earlier than expected. As mentioned, Carmichael loves a quick release, as he spent 12 years designing an offense around one with Drew Brees.
As a close observer of Corral's college career, it's clear he grew immensely as a passer since 2018 to become what he is today. He has room to improve on his ability to make second and third reads, but in an offense like Carmichael's where the ball is typically out of the quarterback's hands very quickly and on rhythm, there's not a better fit for them in this draft. Under the direction of Jeff Lebby and Lane Kiffin the past two seasons, Corral was placed in a similar offense in the sense that the play was designed to get Corral's first read wide open the vast majority of the time, to keep up the tempo. A much faster, lightning-quick release was essentially coached into Corral by Lebby and Kiffin, as that wasn't the priority under either of Phil Longo or Rich Rodriguez's guidance.
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2. Arm strength
Another facet of the Lebby/Kiffin offense that Corral deployed beautifully was deep throws, especially off play action. There were plays where Corral places the ball perfectly in behind defenders 60-plus yards downfield, and it felt like if he was taking a deep shot, it would almost always be in perfect stride with his receiver, be it to Braylon Sanders, Dannis Jackson (Dannis Jackson again, just had to include this throw), Jonathan Mingo, or Dontario Drummond. There was no throw that Corral couldn't make in the SEC, and he made them all look easy at times in Oxford.
3. Leadership
A big part of Drew Brees' tenure in the Big Easy was his ability to lead. Not only his teammates, but the city at-large. Brees and his Saints helped the city through the biggest crisis it has ever faced to date, Hurricane Katrina, and became even more vocal with his leadership as time wore on. Matt Corral is often the same way with his teammates.
The Saturday before the Egg Bowl, the yearly in-state rivalry game between Ole Miss and Mississippi State that's traditionally played on Thanksgiving night, Ole Miss hosted Vanderbilt. The Rebels eased to a victory, but the offense looked a little sluggish at times, as it had also done the week prior against Texas A&M, another victory. Head Coach Lane Kiffin walked into the locker room ready to lay into his offense for not being lethal enough, but he was met with a surprise. Matt Corral was already doing that. Corral noticed the issues with the offense and took it upon himself to address them with his team, before coaches even could.
For much of the 2021 season, Corral had injuries to one or often both ankles. He never once let it show and continued to play, until one final ankle sprain came in the Sugar Bowl and he could fight no longer. In an interview last June, Corral spoke on how Kiffin had instilled the qualities of servant leadership into him. He learned to lead not only by example, but by coaching his teammates through that example.
Corral has the locker room presence to command respect in any locker room in the league from Day 1. There are some who have questioned other aspects of Corral's game, but none have ever questioned his ability to lead.
