Position Week: Three questions for Georgia at QB

The summer is here and after enjoying an extended break in may, Georgia players have made their way back to Athens to participate in workouts. The team will spend the next couple of months getting bigger, stronger, faster, and more connected.

That work will be done out of sight but not out of mind. In order to make sure everyone knows Kirby Smart’s ninth Georgia team as well as possible, DawgsHQ is providing readers with a week-by-week look at every room on the roster with our Position Week series. We continue week one with three questions the Bulldogs must answer at quarterback.

Who is Carson Beck without Brock Bowers or Ladd McConkey?

We got a couple of small glimpses at this a season ago but there’s no denying that Beck was at his best, as any quarterback would be, when he had at least one of these guys healthy and ready to go. Two of Beck’s least-productive games of the season came against Georgia Tech and Alabama, games where both Bowers and McConkey were out or limited.

The senior signal caller will have 12-plus games like that in 2024. To Beck’s credit, he didn’t seem to be overly reliant on either player when he had them in the lineup. Both Bowers and McConkey are the type of offensive weapons who are going to make any offense better. They were both taken in the top 34 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft for crying out loud, but will Beck find his go-to guys and how long will that take? Georgia has weapons, probably a deeper group than it had with Bowers and McConkey in the mix.

Losing two big weapons often leads to speculation as to whether or not a quarterback will take a step back. But in Beck’s case you also have to consider the possibility that he could take a step forward in his second season as the Georgia starter.

Will there be a year-three jump for Gunner Stockton?

Speaking of Beck, he didn’t seriously enter the conversation as the heir apparent until his third season with the program. That’s when the Jacksonville native, serving as the unquestioned backup to Stetson Bennett in 2022, really took off. Georgia blew out several teams during that 15-0 season and Beck came in and looked great.

Well, Stockton is entering year three now and he has a leg up on the backup job. Brock Vandergriff, now at Kentucky, also made a jump in his third season at Georgia even if it wasn’t as impressive as Beck’s rise. Stockton showed flashes in the G-Day game. He looked more confident and put some zip on display that we hadn’t seen previously. Could this season be when Stockton, like Beck, earns the confidence of the UGA faithful?

How quickly can Jaden Rashada pick things up?

Stockton has to win the job first and that’s not a given with the addition of Rashada. I’d certainly predict that Stockton is the backup in 2023 but Georgia went out and got Rashada, a guy who has started three games and has over 180 career snaps under his belt, for a reason.

Kirby Smart wants a competition for that No. 2 spot and Rashada is certainly capable. He’s a tall, strong-armed quarterback who is adept at slinging it around. He’s not going to know the system as well as Stockton and he probably doesn’t move as well, but Rashada’s early success is heavily dependent on how well he can pick up on the quarterback-driven system that Georgia employs.

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