Carson Beck included in rundown of 2024 NFL Draft QB prospects

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck still has to win the starting job for the 2023 season, but folks are already discussing his status for the 2024 NFL Draft.

Jordan Reid of ESPN included Beck on his rundown of top quarterbacks to know for the draft and their biggest questions. Beck’s makes sense. It’s his experience that causes Reid to question whether or not he’ll actually be in the draft class. Still, he’s included in the “Best of the Rest” category because of the potential.

“Beck is likely the next man up for the Bulldogs after waiting his turn for three seasons. Unlike Stetson Bennett, Beck is a true dropback passer who thrives from the pocket, so the offense in Athens should look more like what we saw during the days of Jake Fromm,” Reid wrote. “Beck finished with 310 passing yards and four touchdown passes in seven games last season.”

“At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, he can diagnose and deliver to all areas of the field,” he continued. “He is a relative unknown heading into his redshirt junior season, but he’s surrounded by plenty of standout targets as he tries to help the program win a third consecutive national title.”

Kentucky’s Devin Leary, Tennessee’s Joe Milton and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler are all also in this category and on Georgia’s schedule for 2023. Others in the grouping include NC State’s Brennan Armstrong, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman, Arkansas’s KJ Jefferson, Duke’s Riley Leonard, Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall, Tulane’s Michael Pratt, Utah’s Cameron Rising, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Nebraska’s Jeff Sims, Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa, Florida State’s Jordan Travis, Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei and Washington State’s Cameron Ward. Meanwhile, the top tier has the likes of Caleb Williams (USC), Drake Maye (North Carolina), Quinn Ewers (Texas), Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), J.J. McCarthy (Michigan) and Bo Nix (Oregon).

Beck and former five-star Brock Vandagriff battled for the starting job this spring. Having served as the backup, Beck came into the series of 15 spring practices as the favorite and got more first team reps as a result. That played out in front of the public eye during the G-Day spring game when Beck impressed by completing 13 of 18 passes for 221 yards and a scare in the first half while working with the first team. Vandagriff on the other hand wasn’t quite as crisp in either his time with the first or second team.

“I guess just execute each play,” Beck said when asked what his focus was for the day. “Really all G-Day is is an intrasquad scrimmage that people get to come watch. Just have fun. There’s nothing that you really need to stress over, have fun, execute each play as it comes … We’ve got a lot of guys that can get it done. Really just executing the offense, taking what the defense gives me and moving on from that.”

“It was good. I felt like everything was working,” he continued. “Bobo was really dialing it up. I told him that after when we talked. He was dialing it up, we were executing, guys were getting open, guys were catching balls, guys were making plays. It’s really easy whenever we’re doing that and executing on all levels.”

Headed into summer, Beck still has some work to do to make certain that he’s the starter come September 2nd when Georgia takes the field against UT-Martin to open the season. Vandagriff, and rising redshirt freshman Gunner Stockton, will still get reps, but if Beck can repeat the kind of performance he had in the spring throughout summer and fall camp, he should get that opportunity.

“I’d say I’m content with the way I attacked and approached throughout spring, approached the competition part of it really just trying to focus on myself first and foremost and better myself in the areas I think I can improve,” Beck said. “I think the biggest thing is continuing this connection with the wide receivers. It’s a lot of guys that came in with me and we’ve been throwing since I was a freshman, but the little intricacies and different routes, how to run different things against different coverages and tiny things that will make us better and more explosive on offense … We already started a little bit of that in January and February, but certain days whenever we have off or don’t have a scheduled meeting we’ll come in, come throw by ourselves, no coaches and that’s really where we can attack three or four different routes each time we go out there and throw to perfect the little things.”