UGA football roster: Is Carson Beck the future at quarterback?

The UGA football quarterback room is packed after a busy offseason. The Bulldogs signed Carson Beck in the 2020 class before adding three more quarterbacks via transfer.

In the span of just seven months, early enrollee Carson Beck went from the de facto face of the quarterback position on the 2020 UGA football team to being lost in the shuffle.

In the months since, Georgia brought in Jamie Newman, a graduate transfer from Wake Forest, and JT Daniels, a transfer from Southern California. Between the two transfers was the beginning of the Coronavirus quarantine which canceled spring football and robbed us of a chance to see Beck compete alongside his new teammates “between the hedges.”

Winning the starting position from Newman was always going to be a longshot. It doesn’t matter what conference Newman is coming from, starting experience at the DI level is imperative. But Georgia still needs to be able to rely on Beck (and D’Wan Mathis) as backups because Daniels (another QB with starting experience) isn’t guaranteed to be eligible this season.

Question is, can Georgia rely on Beck if he is needed? Beck certainly has the physical tools to succeed in the SEC starting with a powerful throwing arm. Beck throws his deep balls with a high arch, allowing his receivers to catch up to it, and he can straighten his passes out to get to the ball to his receivers quickly. Besides his arm, Beck is more mobile than his 6-4, 226-lb. frame suggests. He’s not going to rush for a ton of yards, but he certainly isn’t a statue in the pocket.

Beck isn’t just a physically impressive passer, he has some of the mental game down as well. Beck excels at placing passes where only his receivers can catch them, whether that means throwing them open or squeezing the ball into a window where a defender can’t reach it.