Carson Beck led Miami to the College Football Playoff title game last year and now heads to Arizona after the Cardinals chose him No. 65 overall on Friday evening. With Jacoby Brissett as the incumbent starter and a new coaching staff coming in, Beck will have a chance to see the field as a rookie.
CARSON BECK
- Beck is an older prospect who spent six years in college and turns 24 years old in November, but he’s regarded as a sharp processor who can pick apart defenses with his brain and his accuracy. Beck won two national championships as a backup to Stetson Bennett at Georgia and appeared in a third title game last year with Miami. Turnovers are a concern — he had 12 interceptions in each of his final two college seasons — and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler noted in his “The Beast” draft guide that Beck’s decision-making under pressure is concerning. Late draft buzz indicated the NFL thought higher of Beck than most pundits predicted pre-draft, though he still ended up having to wait until the first pick of Round 3 to hear his name called.
- Beck isn’t much of a runner and will have to rely on passing efficiency for fantasy relevancy. As a third-round pick, he also likely sits behind Jacoby Brissett to start the year. He has really legitimate weaponry around him with Trey McBride, Michael Wilson, Jeremiyah Love, and Marvin Harrison Jr. as the pass-catching options here, but he’s still not a very interesting fantasy option beyond dynasty leagues, given his status as a merely okay prospect and third-round pick.
CARDINALS PASS CATCHERS
- Brissett played out of his mind to close last season, throwing for 3,366 yards and 23 touchdowns despite making just 12 starts in 2025. This explosion was largely volume-based, with Brissett only averaging 7.0 yards per attempt, but he at least showed an ability to sustain multiple fantasy-relevant pass catchers. He will probably start in Week 1 as the veteran, but expectations should be tempered in a more normal offense (Arizona tied for the league lead with a +4.9% Pass Rate Over Expectation last year, and Arizona found themselves in some frankly absurd game scripts in 2025). Still, it’s hard to call Beck an upgrade over Brissett after what Brissett did in 2025, so this pick doesn’t move the needle for any of McBride/Wilson/Love/MHJ.
