Senior quarterback Carson Beck has yet to be able to step on the field since announcing his decision to transfer from Georgia to Miami, but he's already made a fantastic first impression on his Hurricanes teammates. Beck's leadership and humility and commitment to building relationships with his new teammates have been lauded by folks in Coral Gables, and while that's certainly a key factor in a quarterback finding success in a new setting, there's a whole lot more to it than that.

And that's what makes the recent declaration of 247Sports college football analyst Brian Crawford so curious, and yes, bold. On Thursday afternoon, Crawford made the bold statement that he considers Beck to be a suitable long shot prediction to be the top overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

“I think we see a rejuvenated Carson Beck at Miami,” Crawford states. “I think he's better than what he showed last year at Georgia. A lot of that was Mike Bobo and that pro style offense that every quarterback hates to play in. There's a reason Carson Beck left, and I think Miami, we saw what Shannon Dawson was able to do last year with Cam Ward, I think Carson Beck is going to have a bounce back year.”

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Crawford made sure to note that he's not going on record that Beck will be the top overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, just that it's possible he could end up surpassing the likes of Drew Allar (Penn State) and Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) as the first quarterback selected. Arch Manning (Texas), Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee), LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina) and Cade Klubnik (Clemson) could also be heard from.

Now a year ago at this time, a declaration like this one would've seemed pretty tame. Beck went into the 2024 college football season as one of the top projected picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. He and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders were considered by most to be the two best quarterbacks in the country. But a disappointing 2024 campaign that concluded prematurely in the SEC Championship Game thanks to an elbow injury that required surgery have sent Carson Beck's draft stock plummeting.

Miami could be the exact place where Carson Beck's football career receives a rejuvenation. For as highly regarded a transfer as Cam Ward was, nobody pegged him as the top quarterback prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft before he became a Hurricane. Assuming he's healthy — and that may turn out to be a rather large assumption — why couldn't the same thing happen for Beck?