When Carson Beck returned to Georgia for the 2024 season, many analysts pegged the signal caller as the top quarterback prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft.  But Beck was not able to build off his 2023 success. Instead, Beck has struggled with his accuracy and decision-making in 2024, ultimately suffering an elbow injury in the SEC Championship win over Texas that required season-ending surgery. Earlier this week, Beck declared for the 2025 NFL Draft.

NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay, speaking on his show for the Ringer, said that was a mistake.

“Carson Beck made a bad decision to leave early,” McShay said. “I texted a bunch of guys in the league. GMs, former GMs, scouts, and a handful of different personnel people. One scout wrote back to me, a one-word answer — ‘foolish.’ Carson Beck, remember, he’s got the UCL injury, it is not as bad as some other injury, like the Brock Purdy injury was more severe. The bottom line is there is time out, there is surgery, there is rehab, there’s also the body of work.”

Beck completed 290-of-448 passes this season for 3,485 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. Beck began the season with seven touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first two games, then, after throwing neither against Kentucky, Beck threw 12 interceptions over the next six games. Beck bounced back over the next three games, tossing 11 touchdown passes with zero interceptions. He was stymied in the first half against Texas in Atlanta, completing 7-of-13 passes for only 56 yards, with two runs for -15 yards, losing a fumble.

“He played great in certain moments,” McShay said. “I thought he played better late in the season. I talked about the Ole Miss game that they lost, I thought he played better in that game. It was a springboard toward playing within himself, not forcing things, understanding what he had to work with in terms of his receiving corps that led the FBS in drops this season, an offensive line that was inconsistent with protection, a run game that was great at times but inconsistent as well. And I thought he improved. But he never this year played to the level that many of us expected him to play to play to.”

Beck’s 7.8 yards per attempt was down significantly from 9.5 last season and below the Southeastern Conference average of 8.0 yards per attempt. Beck’s interception percentage has increased from 1.4 percent to 2.7 percent, tied for the fourth-highest rate in the conference. His completion percentage dropped from 72.4 percent to 64.7 percent and his 145.3 passer rating is just above the league average of 143.6.

“I talked about all season long, making his receivers work,” McShay said. “Study Shedeur Sanders tape and how easy he makes it for his receivers to catch it on the run, hitting spots. Carson Beck’s receivers always seem to be working for the football. I don’t think he’s there yet.”

Beck has 27 career starts over the last two seasons. His 7,912 passing yards and 58 passing touchdowns are sixth-most in program history. Beck’s 628 career completions place him fourth place all-time at Georgia. Among the top 10 quarterbacks in pass attempts at Georgia, Beck’s 68.0 percent completion percentage is No. 1, his 156.4 passer rating is third-best behind Bennett (160.9) and Aaron Murray (158.6). Beck is third behind Bennett (9.1) and Murray (8.9) with 8.6 yards per pass attempt. Beck is second only to Fromm (1.8) with a 2.2 interception percentage.

“You look at so many of these guys and the experience they had in college,” McShay said. “The number of starts. How much better they played late in their career. Grad transfers, playing at two different schools, whatever the situation may be. Jayden Daniels, two different schools, 56 starts or whatever it was. Bo Nix, the most starts in college football history at the time, Dillon Gabriel has now surpassed him. But Bo Nix coming into the league, and the success they had as rookies, because they were more prepared. Carson Beck comes in now, not with that number of starts, not in that 50-60 start range. Coming off a year in which he struggled and regressed in some ways.

I just don’t know that he’s ready. Why wouldn’t you take this time, rehab in the offseason, come back with a better-supporting cast, they have a lot of young wide receivers, I know they have recruited well at wide receiver from what I can tell. Their offensive line will be better. They will be more balanced. Not every response I got from the league was not to the level of foolish, that was the most damning. But it was all ‘he’s making a mistake.’ He’s not going to be a first-round pick at quarterback. So now you get into the second/third round. You are talking about a four-year rookie contract.

The most likely range for him is $6-8 million guaranteed. I don’t know what his NIL is….but I have to imagine at Georgia as the starting quarterback he is going to make around $2 million, $3 million. Whether it is equal pay as a rookie versus one more year at Georgia or taking a paycut. He is not making significantly more money by going to the NFL. Yes, he speeds up that second contract. But by speeding it up, is he putting himself at a disadvantage in terms of being prepared.

Is he as ready as he would be had he gone back for one more year at Georgia. Everyone I talked to and my personal opinion is he is not going to be.”