Greg McElroy predicts Carson Beck could play way into 1st round of 2026 NFL Draft

As the halfway point of the 2025 college football season approaches, the 2026 NFL Draft process is on the horizon. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. released his initial Big Board on Tuesday, featuring some players gaining traction as first-round picks.

Greg McElroy also sees some players who could find themselves in the first round. He specifically pointed out Carson Beck, who is rebuilding his draft stock at Miami this year.

Beck was widely seen as the potential No. 1 pick at this time last year, but he struggled down the stretch at Georgia. He then opted not to declare for the draft and instead enter the transfer portal, committing to Miami to replace Cam Ward. Through the first few months, McElroy thinks Beck is easing some of the concerns that surrounded him in 2025.

“Carson Beck is a guy that, at Miami, is playing his way into the first round again,” McElroy said on SportsCenter Tuesday afternoon. “He’s a guy that if he would have come out two years ago, he had a real chance to be the No. 1 overall pick. He decided to come back, regressed significantly, but he’s back in from. He’s been decisive, the pocket’s been clean. He’s showcasing the ability to keep his poise and his eyes downfield.

“So I think all the things that people were concerned about, those are a thing of the past. Now, it’s about, can he elevate [players] around him?”

Through five games at Miami, Beck has been more than efficient. He leads the ACC with a 73.4 completion percentage, throwing for 1,213 yards and 11 touchdowns to just three interceptions. It’s a big leap from last year when he completed 64.7% of his passes for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns along with an SEC-leading 12 interceptions.

Kiper listed four quarterbacks on his Top 25 Big Board, led by Oregon’s Dante Moore and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson and South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers also appeared in the Top 25.

However, McElroy predicted there would be more than four quarterbacks taken in this year’s first round. Given the salary cap situation across the league, he wondered why teams wouldn’t maybe take one.

“We know there’s going to be more than four taken in the first round,” McElroy said. “It’s a quarterback-starved league and everybody wants one, and why not? With the way things are set up from a salary camp standpoint, you might as well take one on a rookie deal and see what happens.”