Apparently, Carson Beck does not breathe football every second of his day. Normally, this would be viewed as a good thing in life. There's nothing wrong with a little balance.
But it's the silly season for the NFL Draftniks out there, and they have to make a mountain out of every molehill they stumble across. Beck's lack of wanting to watch football every free second of his day has apparently irked ESPN's Draft guy Field Yates.
Yates mentioned a lot of positives about Beck, including his size and his arm strength, while adding some legitimate criticism about his ball placement. Those are all fair, but then Yates decided to take it a step further and talk about Beck's "passion."
""There have been times where publicly Carson Beck made it seem like his passion and his love for football is not at the same level as some of the quarterbacks that we were talking about, He was talking about this during his time at Georgia. It was a comment to the effect of, 'footballl isn't everything to me like it might be for some others'. That's going to matter, it just will."ESPN's Field Yates
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My thoughts: Are we being serious here?
Yates is probably repeating stuff he's hearing from draft scouts, so I'm not going to knock on him too hard. But it shows you how ridiculous this process is. Beck was a top prospect last year, and he had a rough season at Georgia. Some of it was on him and some of it was the lack of a running game from the Bulldogs. He also didn't have the same reliable pass catchers he had in 2023 — tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Ladd McConkey.
But he battled like hell last year to get Georgia to the SEC championship game last year before busting his elbow. He transfers to Miami and works his tail off in rehab to be ready for the season. That doesn't sound like a player that doesn't love football. He just doesn't like watching games that he's not playing in. That's not unusual. A lot of athletes just don't sit around and leisurely watch the sport they play because they would rather be playing it.
My belief is Beck will work himself back into the first round discussion as long as he's healthy. His elbow should continue to get stronger every week, and he's shown great command of the pro-style offense at Miami and Georgia. Maybe he's going to spend his bye week at the beach instead of glued to Georgia Tech-Wake Forest. But he lives in Miami, so really who can blame him?