Are we buying Carson Beck's reinvention? Georgia defector is new Heisman favorite -- and maybe 2026 QB1

Fourteen months ago, Carson Beck was QB1 for just about everybody, whether you covered the NFL draft or were in the league, or in the case of Rick Spielman -- both. The former Vikings general manager (who is now in the Jets' front office) and my former co-host on "With the First Pick," could not speak more highly of Beck during our Summer Scouting series ahead of the 2024 season.

"I thought he was the best (among all the QBs in the 2024 class) and the one that's probably going to take another jump this year, and will clearly be the No. 1 quarterback by the time everything is said and done. … I think he's a top-10 pick."

Funny story: Spielman might end up being right after all. Top 10 might sound too rich right now, just three weeks into the 2025 season, but Beck, who transferred from Georgia to the University of Miami in January for an NIL package that exceeds $4 million, has come a long way in a short period. 

At the time, 2024 felt like a slow-motion train wreck for Beck (the podcast consisted of a lot of weekly conversations like this). He went from an efficient game manager who could make every NFL throw to suddenly playing the position like he was looking through a straw. There were enough terrible decisions and turnovers -- look at the games against Florida and Texas as prime examples -- to fill up a 10-year NFL career as a journeyman backup. 

But to repeat a phrase that I use often when talking about player evaluation: Fit matters. (This, of course, allows me to talk up my guy, Mac Jones, who looked like Alabama Mac in his 49ers debut against the Saints because -- all together now -- fit matters.) Good luck finding a better fit for Beck than Miami. 

A year ago, the Hurricanes landed Cameron Ward, whom some NFL teams I spoke with had Day 3 grades heading into the 2024 campaign. Ward played out of his mind, ended up as the first overall pick in April's draft and looks the part of a franchise quarterback through two weeks of the NFL season.

Beck, meanwhile, played for Georgia from 2020-2024. He sat behind Stetson Bennett for three seasons before earning the starting job in 2023. In many ways, his 2023 campaign mirrored what we saw from J.J. McCarthy at Michigan that season: He was surrounded by a lot of NFL talent -- in Beck's case, that included Brock Bowers AND Ladd McConkey -- and wasn't asked to do a whole helluva lot for long stretches. Still, you saw glimpses of first-round talent, of what NFL teams look for in franchise passers. 

That all went out the window when Beck decided to return for 2024. Things went wrong early and often, and the exclamation point on that forgettable season was the elbow injury he suffered in the loss to Texas in the SEC title game.

I remember talking to folks at Georgia this spring who weren't sad to see Beck leave -- and not because of his on-field play, which obviously wasn't great. There were concerns about whether he could be the leader you expect from the quarterback of one of the best programs on the planet. 

Georgia was not pleased with how Beck went about his business in the wake of his UCL injury, which saw the Bulldogs roll into the College Football Playoffs with a backup QB (they lost to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl). Consider the reporting from CBS Sports' Chris Hummer, Matt Zenitz and Brandon Marcello on Beck's strange year in Athens:

The nature in which Beck's departure played out contributes to further sourness in the breakup. Sources say Georgia, at large, had already been miffed with Beck being away from the team during much of College Football Playoff preparation for the Sugar Bowl as Beck sought opinions from doctors in California and Texas. 

Beck was on the sideline for the Sugar Bowl, where the Bulldogs' season ended in a 23-10 loss to Notre Dame. Beck arrived in New Orleans a day later than his teammates and skipped the team's media day. Some within the program that week seemed ready to move on from Beck, whose personality and headline-grabbing relationship with Miami basketball star and TikTok sensation Hanna Cavinder had become a distraction and a source of frustration for some teammates, sources said, though many of his teammates remained supportive of him as he dealt with a season-ending surgery. 

Those are and were fair concerns at the time. But, you know: fit matters.

Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson has done an amazing job of getting the most out of Beck's talents, in part because there isn't a "one-size-fits-all" approach to taking a quarterback from good to really good, bordering on great. 

"He knows he has a lot to prove and he has also proved a lot," Dawson said back in August. "He has played a lot of football and he has played in big games. This is nothing new for him. He is very even-keeled and calm on a day-to-day basis. Is there a fire? You are damn right there is a fire and that comes out when we have our talks. …  I'm not asking him to be anything other than what he is. We don't need Superman every play. We need good, efficient, offensive football. Good decision-making in the intermediate passing game. We have 11 guys that depend on each other."

The early results are more than encouraging; not only does Beck look like the quarterback we were all expecting a year ago, but it seems like he's matured a lot as well, which is just as important as the on-field progress. His relationship with Cavinder, which was covered by the likes of TMZ and the New York Post, appears to have ended. 

Former Titans general manager Ran Carthon is my co-host on "With the First Pick," and we started Wednesday's show talking about Beck's standout performance against South Florida in Week 3. It was pleasantly surprising, especially after all the squinting I had to do a year ago trying to see the first-round talent. 

So far this season, Beck has been clinical. My first note from the USF game: "If the pocket is clean, Beck is going to cook." He's getting through his reads, he's playing on time, throwing with anticipation and touch on second-level throws. And even when he makes mistakes -- he had two interceptions in the game: one because he was hit as he threw the ball, the other because of some combination of miscommunication with his receivers and an overthrow -- he owns them, learns from them and gets better.

For Miami coach Mario Cristobal, that's all part of being a leader, something we didn't necessarily see in Athens last year.

"Genuine. Real. Strong. Alpha," Cristobal said after the win over USF. "I thought the best thing was, after an interception, [Beck's] response was, 'Give me the ball. Let us get to work.' And he uses the word 'us' and 'we.' That hits strong when you're a coach, right?  … You don't talk in 'I's' and 'my's' and 'me this.' So his whole demeanor, his approach is very team-driven, as is his competitive response."

We spend a lot of time during the pre-draft process talking about the ancillary, non-football stuff as we collectively try to figure out how the puzzle fits together. Does this quarterback's leadership skills overcome some physical deficiency, or vice versa? Because while you can have a good quarterback who isn't a great leader, ideally you want both in your locker room. Beck taking advantage of this opportunity in Miami has gotten people's attention in the league. 

One league source described Beck as "on fire" to start the season, and thinks he has a chance to find his way into the first round.

Another league source took it a step further, telling me that Beck "looks phenomenal," his offensive coordinator deserves a lot of credit and through three weeks of college football, he has Beck behind only Garrett Nussmeier in the race for QB1.

And it's hard to argue! Carthon has decreed that we can't bring up Arch Manning because of his sluggish start and I'm 100% on board with it. After that, there's Nussmeier, who flashes first-round talent and still has a throw or two per game you can't quite wrap your head around. Fernando Mendoza appears to be settling in for the Hoosiers, Drew Allar and Penn State have yet to play anyone (can't wait for the Oregon game!), Mr. Moxie John Mateer remains the most exciting player in college football but has to cut down on the interceptions, Cade Klubnik is struggling, LaNorris Sellers is injured, Sawyer Robertson and Josh Hoover have been fun … and that brings us back to Beck.

2025 Heisman Trophy odds

via FanDuel Sportsbook

Sports are made for redemption stories, and Beck's story arc over the last 12 months has been a wild ride. The chapter has yet to be written on whether he ends up as QB1 in the 2026 NFL Draft a year after he was effectively run out of Athens, and two years removed from being the consensus QB1 heading into the season. For now, it's just good to see him playing well again and reinserting himself into the quarterback conversation. 

"The way he's playing now, I think he's in the conversation for the first round," Carthon said on the podcast. "And that (in part) is based off how the rest of these quarterbacks have looked. I've said it time and time again, no superstar is playing like a superstar right now in college football."

Carthon, as he is inclined to do, pushed back on the idea that we have to crown these kids in mid-September. And I understand that wholeheartedly. But I also cannot help myself.

And we should learn a lot in the coming weeks; Miami hosts Florida on Saturday and then travels to Tallahassee to face Florida State on Oct. 4. The opponents become less daunting after that, and as one person pointed out to me, "Beck is playing an ACC schedule -- this isn't the SEC" in terms of week-in, week-out competition. 

We could've said the same thing about Ward a season ago. And as long as Beck continues to get better as a quarterback and a leader, he's going to be hard to ignore.