Haynes King Walks Off the Hall of Fame Game and Opens the NFL Preseason
Carolina's third-string rookie ran in the winning touchdown as time expired to beat Arizona 33-30 in Canton — and stole the spotlight from fellow rookie Carson Beck.
Football is back, and the NFL's preseason opener delivered a finish worthy of a game that counts. The Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton on Thursday night, with rookie quarterback Haynes King scoring on a 5-yard run with no time remaining, per NFL.com's recap.
The rookie duel
The night was billed as a first look at Arizona's Carson Beck, and the rookie delivered: 15 of 19 for 188 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions, including what NFL.com called a "beautiful back corner fade" to Simi Fehoko. For a debut, the command and deep-ball timing were the headline.
But King, Carolina's third-stringer, answered with the fuller stat line: 21 of 34 for 180 yards and two touchdowns, plus 39 rushing yards and the game-winner on the final snap, as Yahoo Sports noted in reporting how he stole the rookie spotlight.
The quieter storyline in Carolina
Per NFL.com, starter-for-the-night Kenny Pickett looked hesitant by comparison, and King "appeared like the better (and more comfortable) passer" — the kind of August observation that starts genuine depth-chart conversations. Preseason box scores are famously disposable, but backup quarterback jobs are won in exactly these games.
Why it matters
The Hall of Fame Game is the ceremonial start of the NFL calendar: every team now plays its way through August toward cut-down decisions, and the full preseason schedule unfolds from here. For two franchises hoping their quarterbacks of the future showed up Thursday, the early returns were about as encouraging as a meaningless game can be.