Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Georgia Bulldogs starting quarterback Carson Beck had his season come to an end following surgery from an elbow injury he suffered in the SEC Championship Game. Now, it turns out that Beck’s college career has come to an end, as on Saturday, he announced his intention to enter the 2025 NFL Draft.
Beck released a statement through social media in which he thanked his family, his coaches, and his teammates for helping him reach this point in his football career. He ended the message by thanking the Georgia fans, who will now have to root on a different quarterback for both the College Football Playoff and for next season.
It turns out that Beck’s final play as a Bulldog will be him returning to the field after suffering the injury, in order to hand the ball off to running back Trevor Etienne for the game-winning touchdown over the Texas Longhorns. That won the conference for Georgia and sent it to the CFP, where the Bulldogs will face Notre Dame in a Sugar Bowl matchup on New Year’s Day.
Beck’s backup, Gunner Stockton, relieved the former in the SEC Championship Game and is expected to get the start versus Notre Dame. Beck injured his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the game, which is commonly seen in baseball and leads to the dreaded Tommy John Surgery. While it’s unknown if Beck had that same operation, Georgia did confirm on Monday that Beck had UCL surgery in Los Angeles, thus ending any chance of him competing in the College Football Playoff. Per the release, he is expected to make a full recovery and should resume throwing in the spring.
A fifth-year senior, Beck could have returned to school for a sixth year in 2025 due to two redshirt years. One came in 2020, in which all college players could have taken a redshirt due to the COVID pandemic affecting the season, and another redshirt came in 2021, when he attempted just 23 passes.
Beck finishes his college career with 7,912 passing yards, 58 passing touchdowns, and 20 interceptions. He went 24-3 as a starting quarterback and won two national championships in 2021 and 2022 while serving as a backup to Stetson Bennett IV. Beck’s 28 passing touchdowns in 2024 lead all SEC quarterbacks, as do his 12 interceptions, while his 3,485 passing yards rank third in the conference. In his first year as a starter in 2023, Beck was named to the All-SEC Second Team after topping the conference with 3,941 passing yards.
Beck, the 2018 Florida Mr. Football winner, is a native of Jacksonville, Florida, and is projected as a Day 2 pick by most draft experts, placing him in either the second or third round. He’s hoping to become the third Georgia quarterback to join the NFL ranks, and coincidentally, the other two happen to share the same quarterback room. Bennett, who was taken in the fourth round in 2023, is a backup on the Los Angeles Rams to former Bulldog, Matthew Stafford, who was the top overall pick back in 2009.
The timing of Beck’s injury does him no favors as it will prevent him from potentially improving his draft stock via postseason All-Star Games, such as the East-West Shrine Bowl or the Senior Bowl, both of which usually take place in early February. He was viewed as a potential No. 1 draft pick, prior to the season, before struggles knocked him down the draft projections.
Beck, however, can look to recent history to find another quarterback who successfully came back from UCL surgery as Brock Purdy injured his elbow in Jan. 2023, had surgery in March, and returned to the field for the San Francisco 49ers in August 2023. Purdy proceeded to produce a Pro Bowl season in which he led the NFL in passer rating.
As for the future of the quarterback position for Georgia, Bulldogs fans need not worry. Not only is Stockton in tow, but the school added a pair of four-stars in freshman Ryan Puglisi and transfer Jaden Rashada in the 2024 recruiting cycle, and they then added yet another four-star prospect in the Class of 2025 with Ryan Montgomery.
