ATHENS - Carson Beck’s path back to an NFL huddle may come faster than anyone expected.
ESPN reported that Arizona starter Gardner Minshew ll “probably” needs season-ending surgery on his right ulnar collateral ligament, a development that would push Beck into the Cardinals’ starting job for Sunday’s game. ESPN also cited sources saying Minshew is pursuing additional medial opinions to determine whether surgery is necessary.
If that happens, Beck would join Matthew Stafford as the only Georgia alumni currently starting in the NFL, while Stetson Bennett lll remains in his backup role behind Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams.
Beck’s route to this moment has been anything but straightforward. He spent five of his six college seasons with Georgia, including a 24-3 run as the Bulldogs’ starter in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to Miami for his final season. He still hasn’t taken a regular-season NFL snap.
Before that, Beck spent three years behind other quarterbacks at Georgia before finally getting his chance under Kirby Smart. He had planned to finish his career in Athens, but that changed when he suffered an elbow injury on the final play of the first half of the 2024 SEC Championship Game against Texas.
Beck initially declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, then was advised by his agent to return for another year of college football after the injury altered his draft outlook.
“I didn’t know I’d get injured at the end of the season, I didn’t know that I was going to end up coming back to college for another year, that was never the plan,” Beck said.
“It’s like, Gunner (Stockton) is next up, that’s the thing, it’s his turn to be the quarterback at the University of Georgia. So when I had decided to not go to the NFL and come back, I was going to go somewhere else. That’s how it all worked out.”
Stockton stepped in for Beck and helped Georgia rally for a 22-19 comeback win over Texas in the SEC title game, then started in the Bulldogs’ 23-10 CFP quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame before Beck chose to return to college football.
Beck’s final college stop came at Miami, where he led the Hurricanes to the CFP Championship Game before they fell to Indiana, 27-21.
Arizona, meanwhile, enters Sunday at 3-6 and will host the winless Los Angeles Chargers at 4:05 p.m. The Cardinals had Beck in the second-string role last week after using him as the emergency third quarterback for the first eight weeks.
The roster around him is banged up, too. Arizona is already without two starting offensive linemen and three starting wide receivers.
Still, coach Mike LaFleur said the offense won’t be reinvented if Beck ends up running it.
“Yeah, I mean it’s not like it’s the difference between a wing-T offense and a spread offense,” LaFleur told ESPN.com. “Foundationally, we’re going to do a lot of the similar stuff and a lot of the stuff that Carson likes and is good at is the same stuff that Gardner likes. They like this system, and so that’s not a hard one.”
Beck also showed well in the lone NFL preseason game he played, going 15 of 19 for 188 yards and a touchdown without an interception after starting the game and handling the opening series of the third quarter.
Arizona has also added former Denver backup Josh Johnson to the mix as a reserve behind Beck. Johnson, 40, is a journeyman quarterback who played in five games for Washington last season, including two starts.
Georgia’s quarterback pipeline has kept producing, and Beck’s name now sits among the program’s most productive passers. The list includes Aaron Murray with 921, David Greene with 849, Eric Zeier with 838, Carson Beck with 628, Jake Fromm with 621, Stetson Bennett with 601, Matthew Stafford with 564, Quincy Carter with 483 and Gunner Stockton with 465.
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