Matt Corral's rough preseason appears to have reached a premature finish due to a Lisfranc injury suffered in Friday night's loss to the New England Patriots, coach Matt Rhule told reporters Saturday.
Corral suffered the injury when his foot was stepped on during game action, forcing him out of the contest to undergo X-rays. The scans revealed the injury, which Rhule called "significant" and will likely end his season.
Corral's stat line from his first two preseason games mirrored his underwhelming performance. The rookie completed 9 of 15 passes for 58 yards Friday night, and narrowly avoided turning the ball over on a couple of occasions. That followed a Week 1 outing in which he completed just 1 of 9 passes for 11 yards as the fourth and final quarterback to play in Carolina's win over Washington.
The former Ole Miss quarterback joined the Panthers via the 94th-overall pick in April's draft. Carolina's acquisition of Baker Mayfield buried Corral on the depth chart, and his foot injury will likely close his rookie campaign, which wasn't destined for much more than a role on the bench at best.
"I hate it for him. I hate it any time one of our guys is hurt," Rhule said. "And I thought he was playing well too. I left him in that situation backed up, because I wanted him to have that, hey here's the crowd, here's the noise. But I thought I saw a lot of really nice signs early in the game. Found some guys that were open, and did some good things.
"I know Matt's a battler, so this year of development, he's going to have to grind, both taking care of his foot and all the things he needs to do as a quarterback. Hopefully some day, he'll look back and say it was a blessing, but I hate it for him right now."
