Miami’s Carson Beck gets one last chance to boost his NFL draft stock
The overwhelming consensus projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft will be on display when Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza leads the Indiana Hoosiers into Monday night’s CFP National Championship. Mendoza’s emergence as the best-in-class quarterback was cemented when Dante Moore, his only real competition, elected to return to Oregon for another season of college football.
Yet it’s the quarterback on the other sideline who stands to gain the most from the Orange Bowl matchup. Miami QB Carson Beck gets a chance to show what he can do under the spotlight against an aggressive Indiana defense.
It wasn’t that long ago that Beck was viewed as someone who could be wearing Mendoza’s shoes. Then the quarterback at Georgia, Beck entered the 2024 college season as a popular choice to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft in preseason mock projections. After leading the Bulldogs to a 13-1 record while completing over 72 percent of his passes and throwing 24 TDs against just 6 INTs in 2023, it was a plausible projection for Beck.
Carson Beck’s fall from draft grace
His 2024 campaign in Athens didn’t measure up as well. Beck’s completion percentage and TD/INT ratio each dropped significantly, while his yards per attempt also declined. The arm strength, the decision-making and the playmaking panache just weren’t the same during the season. Then came a devastating elbow injury in the loss to Texas that left his ability to even throw the football again in doubt.
Beck persevered. He transferred to Miami and found his new home with the Hurricanes an inviting one. The arm strength still isn’t on par with other 2026 draft QBs like Mendoza or Penn State’s Drew Allar, but Beck has nicely maximized what he’s got. His pinpoint accuracy, notably on anticipatory throws to the outside, has rebounded to looking more like the highly touted 2023 version.
With quarterbacks perceived to be above Beck in the NFL projections, guys like Moore and Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby (who transferred to Texas Tech) remaining in school, Beck’s stock should be on the rise. His leadership, crisp passes and mistake avoidance under pressure present Beck as one of the more NFL-ready passers in the class. When given protection, Beck can still take downfield shots, too.
2026 draft potential for Beck
A strong performance in the final college game of the season would provide another reason for NFL teams to consider Beck as a more viable prospect. He currently projects as a third or fourth-round pick. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. sees Beck in that range, offering this assessment on a recent episode of Get Up,
“He’s a guy I think could be a career backup in the NFL,” Kiper said on the broadcast. “I’d say late day two, early day three for him.”
In a thinner draft class, the 23-year-old Beck could bump up from that range. Showing out against Indiana would only help those chances.
