Why Carson Beck’s Cardinals debut has NFL abuzz. ‘He’s a very smart dude.’

The NFL is still buzzing over Carson Beck’s debut with the Arizona Cardinals last week.

“Carson Beck looks like he belongs,” former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said on “The Herd” radio show. “I watched that game, and I was like, ‘… the ‘it factor’? This guy’s got it. He’s cool, he’s calm … he made hard things look really easy.’”

Beck was 15-of-19 passing for 188 yards and a touchdown on the five full series he played before leaving the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, with the score tied 17-17 after the opening series of the third quarter.

Former Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King stole the moment in the fourth quarter, scoring the game-winning touchdown on a 5-yard scramble on the final play of the game in Carolina’s 33-30 victory.

But football analysts have focused more on Beck’s performance and the efficiency he exhibited running Arizona’s offense under first-year coach Mike LaFleur.

“Carson Beck looks great in the Hall of Fame Game,” NFL senior insider Adam Schefter said on the “Pat McAfee Show.” “I think at some point this season, we could get a look at him as a starter.”

Jacoby Brissett, a 10-year veteran, is the Cardinals’ projected starting quarterback for now, with Beck entering the preseason No. 3 on the depth chart, also behind seven-year veteran Gardner Minshew.

“It didn’t look like it was his first game. I thought he played really well, especially with what we asked him to do,” Brissett said on the NFL Network. “I’m not the talent evaluator, (but) from the QB room, I thought he played well.”

The NFL’s preseason opening game drew 6.99 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch, representing the largest audience for a preseason opener in five years and notably bigger than any NBA regular-season TV audience this season.

Carolina coach Dave Canales, who served as QB coach for Russell Wilson and Geno Smith in Seattle, made it clear Beck looked good from the opposing sideline, too.

“First of all, let’s talk about Carson Beck. He operated like a professional, and he looked fantastic,” Canales said in his postgame news conference.

“He was accurate, he was on time, our rush was decent, he got the ball out and threw some beautiful passes downfield up the sideline on some double moves, and over the middle to keep some drives alive on some pretty hard third-down situations, so tip my hat to him.”

Beck’s story has been well-documented. After waiting three years to become the starter in Athens he led Georgia to a 24-3 record before suffering an elbow injury that derailed his plans to turn pro after earning his degree.

“The way that everything ended was very abrupt, I wasn’t able to give my thanks, give my appreciation, obviously I’m super thankful and appreciative for my five years there,” Beck said on the “Iamathlete” podcast after transferring to Miami after pulling his name out of the NFL draft. “That (five years) is … 20% of my life.

Beck said at the NFL combine: “There’s no bad blood (with Georgia). … I didn’t know I’d get injured at the end of the season. I didn’t know that I was going to end up coming back to college for another year. That was never the plan.”

Beck led Miami to wins over Texas A&M (10-3), Ohio State (24-14) and Ole Miss (31-27) in the College Football Playoff before falling to Indiana in the CFP Championship Game, 27-21.

The Cardinals selected Beck in the third round of the NFL aft with the 65th overall pick, and LaFleur started him in the preseason opener.

“He’s a very smart dude, it makes sense to him, he can articulate, and it’s not just football,” LaFleur said on the NFL Network. “You can see this guy is smart in a lot of facets of life.”