PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The first in-person quarterback interview with the Steelers before the NFL Draft is a player who has the size, won a lot of games, but comes with injury history. What Carson Beck said about his season as he was in Pittsburgh Tuesday.
Beck led Miami to the national championship game, a much closer game than expected, beating favorite Ohio State along with the way. Beck won 37 games in three years as a starter, the first pair with Georgia.
The Jacksonville native was planning on going to the NFL a year ago, but injury forced him to change his mind. It was the SEC championship game when Beck suffered a UCL injury on his throwing elbow ending his season. He thought it ended his college career, he declared for the draft and started going through the process and realized there were a lot of questions around his health.
Now the NFL is off-the-table and Beck is trying to find a taker at a high-level college program for one more season. Georgia was no longer interested, moving on to their next highly ranked quarterback after Beck had surgery on his right elbow.
“It's obviously a really hard thing for me mentally and physically, not knowing if I was ever going to be able to have that opportunity to play quarterback at the level that I had,” Beck said at the NFL Combine.
As his whole world was turned upside-down in just a matter of weeks, Beck went through what he called ‘a really hard journey’ in dealing with the rehab process. But over that down time, he found a taker in the University of Miami. Beck credits their training staff, coaches and his new teammates for pushing him through the tough times to get back on the field.
“I mean, I've been doing this since I was five years old,” Beck said at the NFL Combine. “It's a game that I've loved and cherished my whole entire life, essentially, at least what I remember.”
“It was more about coming back from the injury, being able to go through the rehab, having great teammates around me to help me push through that and get through that. And then ultimately have an opportunity to play again after kind of getting that taken away from me.”
His first game with the Hurricanes was hosting the runner-up in the national championship game, Notre Dame. Beck was a tidy 20 of 30 for 205 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. The first road game, he threw for four touchdowns and no interceptions in a 28-22 win at Florida State. Beck would bomb against Louisville, throwing four interceptions leading to a loss and threw a pair of picks in a loss at SMU. In his last eight games he would throw 16 touchdowns to three interceptions leading wins at Texas A&M, against the Buckeyes and Ole Miss. In the national championship game against Indiana, 19-32 for 232 yards with a touchdown and interception.
The 6’5”, 233-pounder has the size, but his arm strength isn’t what it was. His positives according to NFL.com are his progressions, quick enough release, catchable ball and can roll when in a rhythm. The dip in velocity is a big negative along with accuracy at times and getting rattled under pressure.
He is projected as a late third or fourth round pick with the potential to fall deeper into Day 3 of the NFL Draft.
Beck had previously met with Mike McCarthy and the Steelers staff in Indianapolis.
“I thought the interview went well,” Beck said at the NFL Combine. “It's hard to read. Sometimes they're all professionals there, but again, talking to Coach McCarthy, it was honestly really cool. Obviously he's had an amazing career as a coach and just talking to him, you can tell how smart he is just from a football side and a football standpoint. So it was a really cool opportunity.”
Tuesday was a second opportunity proving more interest as the Steelers still have need at the position.