'It's deep, man.' Georgia football bullish on wide receiver corps for Carson Beck

No returning FBS quarterback threw for more yards than Carson Beck’s 3,941 last season.

There’s little reason to believe that Beck can’t match or top that this season in his second year as the Georgia football starter.

A big reason: the many options in the Bulldogs' wide receiver group.

“Shoot, our whole receiver room, it’s deep, man,” junior Dillon Bell said. “We’ve got a lot of guys two, three deep at one position, where guys can make plays. I feel like we’ve got the best receiving corps in the SEC. Not only the SEC, in the nation. We’ve got a lot of weapons.”

Georgia has eight different wide receivers who caught touchdown passes last season.

The group was ranked sixth nationally at the position by On3’s Jesse Simonton.

“One thing I can say is we have depth,” said Dominic Lovett, the team’s top returning receiver with 54 catches for 613 yards and 4 touchdowns last season and who by all accounts upped his game even more this spring. “We help each other out. Everybody is getting better every day. We’re growing, learning the playbook. Trying to learn different positions so we can be more versatile.”

Beck won’t be able to throw anymore to tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Ladd McConkey—the No. 13 and 34 overall NFL Draft picks—but there’s no shortage of targets for him.

“We’ve added a couple of wrinkles that fit what Carson does and fit what our wideouts do because it may not all be Brock Bowers based,” coach Kirby Smart said last week on WFOX-FM 94.5 in Birmingham. “It may be some other guys involved.”

Bell led the Bulldogs with 7 catches for 86 yards in the drilling of Florida State in the Orange Bowl. He scored four touchdowns on the season—two receiving coming against Florida and Tennessee while making 29 catches for 355 yards.

“There’s a lot of different ways we can attack a defense,” Beck said. “There are so many guys that are going to make plays. The good thing about it is they’ve all been very selfless. They’re going to go out there and give their 100 percent each play they’re out there and they’re going to be happy for the next guy because they know the next time around the ball might be coming to them.”

Miami transfer Colbie Young exited the spring looking like the most impactful newcomer. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder showed he’s a red zone threat and a player that can win one-on-one matchups with his size.

He’s one of three transfers at the position added this offseason. Georgia landed two of the top five rated wideouts in the 247Sports transfer rankings. Young was No. 5.

Vanderbilt transfer London Humphreys had a quiet spring by comparison, but he was rated No. 3. Georgia saw his speed firsthand against the Commodores last season when he scored on a 49-yard touchdown.

Southern Cal transfer Michael Jackson III was rated the No. 71 transfer wide receiver and No. 401 overall, but Georgia added someone that had been around him at USC in new defensive  backs coach Donte Williams.

Jackson had 46 catches for 498 yards and 5 touchdowns in three seasons.

“He’s very quiet,” said former USC running back MarShawn Lloyd, a third round pick of Green Bay in this year’s draft. “He’s a silent killer. He doesn’t say much,. He doesn’t say much at all, but when you get close to him you see a little bit more, but he’s a silent killer. He’s a really good player and very coachable and I’m expecting him to do good at Georgia.”

Lovett transferred to Georgia in 2023 after two seasons at Missouri.

Rara Thomas battled a foot injury last season, but also brought SEC experience from his time at Mississippi State. He averaged 16.7 yards per catch with one touchdown but missed the last three games of the season.

Young spent two seasons at Miami where he had 10 touchdown catches.

“I think all across the board, our wideouts may be our best leadership group,” Smart said after the G-Day spring game last month. “O-line maybe and then receiver. They have some really good core leaders.”

Arian Smith had a quiet spring game, but seemed to take a step up in consistency this spring entering his fifth college season. The speedster has six career touchdown catches.

Anthony Evans flashed playmaking ability in the bowl game and had a 54-yard catch in the spring game.

It might say something about how deep this group is that Tyler Williams transferred after spring practice and landed at Minnesota.

The Bulldogs added freshmen Sacovie White and Nitro Tuggle in the 2024 class.

“There’s so much depth,” Beck said, “that it really doesn’t matter who’s out there on the field, we know they’re going to make the play and we’re confident in them.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Brock Bowers now in NFL, but Georgia offense can lean more on receivers