The Matt Corral era lasted all of a week and a half as the Patriots released Corral this morning to elevate Bailey Zappe as Mac Jones back up ahead of tomorrow’s season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. The move is surprising considering the Patriots seemingly wanted to keep Corral around but ultimately they chose to elevate Zappe and the only way they could create a roster spot was to move on from Corral.

The Patriots released Zappe and Malik Cunningham two weeks ago but ultimately brought both back on the practice squad. Now Zappe is once again backing up Jones. It makes sense from an experience standpoint. Zappe knows the system and has proven that he can play if he needs to.

Corral has upside but clearly the Patriots did not see enough in him in his short time here that warranted keeping him on the roster in any capacity.

Barring injury, there is a good chance that the Patriots will once again roll with Mac as the starter and Zappe as his back-up. It might be the ideal back up situation but experience in the system matters and Zappe has plenty of it.

As far as Cunningham is concerned, it remains to be seen if he will be in the quarterback mix this season. For now, it is the Jones, Zappe show.