Carson Beck will take the first snaps of his NFL career on Thursday, starting for the Arizona Cardinals against the Carolina Panthers in the Hall of Fame Game.
It's a meaningful moment for a player who wasn't even guaranteed a roster spot a year ago.
Cardinals to start Carson Beck at QB vs. Panthers in Hall of Fame Game. pic.twitter.com/Su9y3yEbgl
— NFL (@NFL) August 4, 2026
Carson Beck gets the start for the Cardinals
Beck enters the year as the third-string quarterback on Arizona's depth chart, behind both Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew II. Brissett recently signed a reworked one-year deal worth $15.5 million guaranteed, money that pretty much locks him in as the Week 1 starter.
Most teams also don't play their established veterans in the first preseason game of the year, which is why Beck is getting this start over Brissett or Minshew. But it is still Beck's first chance to show what he can do in front of an NFL coaching staff and it shows just how far he's come since his time at Georgia.
19 months after elbow surgery, Carson Beck is starting an NFL game
Beck tore the UCL in his throwing elbow on the final play of the first half of Georgia's SEC Championship Game win over Texas in December 2024. It was an injury that ended his season and required surgery from Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
He had briefly entered the 2025 NFL Draft afterward before withdrawing within 24 hours to transfer to Miami instead, agreeing to a reported NIL deal worth more than $4 million. He didn't practice that spring while completing his recovery, and he wasn't fully cleared to throw again until the tail end of Miami's spring session.
The payoff for that patience was massive. Beck went on to start every game for a Miami team that reached the national championship game. He had a Fiesta Bowl MVP performance against Ole Miss where he threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns and scrambled for the game-winning score.
Across his five college seasons at Georgia and Miami, he finished with 11,725 passing yards, 88 touchdowns and 32 interceptions on 69.5% accuracy. Arizona used a third-round pick on him this spring, and he's while the Week 1 job may not be up for grabs, he certainly could see meaningful reps in the regular season this year.
For a player who couldn't throw a football 19 months ago, just being the guy under center in an NFL stadium is proof of how far the recovery has come.
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