Football is back.
And what a way to see it back in action after the Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 on a rushing touchdown as time expired.
It was the second highest scoring contest in Hall of Fame Game history.
From the Panthers perspective, the story of the game was undrafted rookie quarterback Haynes King.
King completed 21 of 34 passes for 180 yards, threw for two touchdowns and added another 39 yards on the ground with the game winning rushing touchdown.
Preseason defensive installs are extremely vanilla. Reasonable people should not come away from last night’s contest thinking King is a budding superstar.
However, King still took advantage of his opportunity. He showed why he was a priority undrafted free agent for the Panthers.
What King’s performance did do is potentially force the Panthers into an extremely difficult decision on roster cutdown day,
The Panthers have not kept three quarterbacks on the active roster since Dan Morgan and Dave Canales took over in 2024.
If King strings together similar performances over the next three weeks of practices and preseason games, would the Panthers make him the backup to Bryce Young over Kenny Pickett?
The answer is still likely no. But, last night certainly made it a possible outcome once camp concludes. There’s still a long way to go over the coming weeks.
The Panthers had to sweat out Jalen Coker clearing waivers when they cut him in 2024.
After putting up that performance on national television, the odds of King clearing waivers would likely be extremely low if he were cut.
Back in February, Dan Morgan said: “I do think that we want to get a little younger and a little more athletic at that backup quarterback spot.”
Pickett seemed like the lock to be the backup when he was signed but King’s performance might make them reconsider.
Some additional thoughts
I appreciate the Panthers going for the win and not ending the game on a tie.
AJ Dillon has had a tough road over the last two seasons. He missed all of 2024 with an injury and didn’t play much in Philadelphia in 2025. It was good to see him get into the end zone.
The battle for the final receiver spot is going to come down to the wire. Metchie, Horn and Reed all made big plays last night. Horn’s night could’ve been larger had King not air mailed him wide open in the end zone.
Football is back and that’s a great thing. Enjoy the ride.
I love that they’re aggressive on 4th down!