Livescore
Carson Beck entered the 2024 college football season with a sterling professional outlook. Many mock drafts pegged Beck as the first quarterback taken off the board within the first five picks of the first round in 2025.
But an up-and-down year at Georgia, underscored by an SEC-high 12 interceptions and a UCL injury in the SEC Championship Game that required surgery to repair, caused Beck’s stock plummet. CBS Sports ranked Beck as its No. 55 overall prospect, and some scouts thought he was a Day 3 pick.
That’s the difference a so-so year makes, even if Beck still threw for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns, both top five among SEC quarterbacks.
It’s against that backdrop that Beck made the increasingly common decision to return to school for another year. It won’t be with Georgia, though. Beck entered the transfer portal, where he instantly became the top prospect in 247Sports’ Transfer Rankings but just as quickly committed to Miami.
NFL-caliber quarterbacks returning for another year in college isn’t a new concept. Tennessee legend Peyton Manning, famously, returned for his senior season in 1997 despite being projected as the top overall pick in that year’s draft; he still went No. 1 in 1998.
USC quarterback Matt Barkley, a projected first-round selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, actually hurt his stock some by instead returning for another year with the Trojans. He was still picked in the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft and went on to have a decade-long career as a backup. There are worse fates.
The transfer portal has entirely changed that dynamic. Now, not only can quarterbacks return for another year, they can do so with — in some cases — a much-needed change of scenery. For a lot of players, it’s a prime opportunity to either boost or recover NFL Draft stock.
There were six quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Four of them had transferred at least once. Three of those transfers spent a minimum of five years at the collegiate level.
Bo Nix went from an Auburn castoff to a Heisman Trophy finalist that developed into the No. 12 pick at Oregon. Michael Penix Jr. left an injury riddled Indiana career behind and took Washington to the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship. He then went to the Atlanta Falcons with the eighth overall pick.
Then, of course, there’s Jayden Daniels. Daniels transferred from Arizona State under former coach Herm Edwards and ended up at LSU, where he won the 2023 Heisman Trophy. Daniels, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, is a frontrunner for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and just guided the Washington Commanders to their first playoff win since 2005.
Beck is following directly in the footsteps of a quarterback that just used the transfer portal to drastically increase his professional outlook. Miami took Beck to replace Cam Ward, a two-time transfer from Incarnate Word and Washington State who looks like he’s on a similar path.
Like Beck, Ward initially announced that he would enter the 2024 NFL Draft after two seasons at Washington State. But the first wave of feedback tabbed him as a mid-round prospect, so he instead transferred to the Hurricanes.
Ward threw for 4,313 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2024 and finished fourth in the Heisman voting while leading Miami to its first 10-win season under coach Mario Cristobal. The latest 2025 NFL mock draft, courtesy of CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson, has the Tennessee Titans drafting Ward with the first overall pick.
Returning for another year doesn’t just afford Beck the opportunity to improve his stock. By utilizing his extra eligibility and transferring, he’ll likely profit more from name, image and likeness deals than he would have on his rookie NFL contract as a non-Day 1 pick.
Factor in that Beck could — if he improves his stock — make millions of dollars more in the 2026 NFL Draft, and his decision to return via the transfer portal seems quite prudent, especially since recent history is on Beck’s side.
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