Panthers Steal the Hall of Fame Game From the Cardinals on the Final Play — And Two Rookie QBs Stole the Whole Show
Photo: NFL
By Dez Barnes
The 2026 NFL season kicked off the only way preseason football ever really should: with total chaos, a game-winning touchdown on the literal last play of the game, and two rookie quarterbacks putting the league on notice before either of their teams has played a single meaningful snap. The Carolina Panthers edged the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night in Canton, Ohio, and honestly? This "meaningless" exhibition game gave us more storylines than some regular season matchups do.
The Ending, Because We Have to Start There
With the Panthers trailing 30-27 and just 39 seconds left on the clock, rookie quarterback Haynes King faced a third-and-14 near midfield. Instead of settling for a checkdown, he took off and ran the ball 26 yards up the middle, dragging Carolina all the way to Arizona's 17-yard line and setting up one final shot. Five plays later, with no time remaining on the clock, King punched it in himself from 5 yards out for the walk-off win.
It was the kind of finish that gets clipped and replayed for weeks, and it instantly turned a third-string quarterback's preseason debut into the story of the night.
Haynes King Was the Real Headline
Let's be clear about who King is in Carolina's pecking order right now: he's not the starter. Bryce Young is still QB1 for the Panthers, and King entered this game as the third-string option behind him. But from the moment he stepped on the field, he looked like the more comfortable, more decisive passer of the night.
His final stat line: 21-of-34 passing for 180 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions, plus 39 rushing yards and the game-winning score on the ground. He wasn't flawless — he overthrew a wide-open Jimmy Horn Jr. in the end zone right before halftime — but the overall impression he left was undeniable. He used his mobility to buy time, found open targets consistently, and generally played like a guy who belonged on the field, not one who was just happy to be there. There's already chatter about whether King could climb Carolina's depth chart before the regular season even starts, which is not a sentence you usually hear about a team's third-string quarterback in early August.
Arizona's Carson Beck Wasn't Just There to Lose, Either
On the other sideline, Arizona's third-round pick out of Miami, Carson Beck, gave Cardinals fans every reason to be excited about their future. Beck played the entire first half plus part of the third quarter and finished 15-of-19 passing for 188 yards, one touchdown, zero interceptions, and a passer rating of 125.4. He led Arizona to 17 first-half points across two touchdown drives, was sacked just once, and looked genuinely composed in the pocket for a player making his first-ever NFL appearance in any capacity.
What stood out most was his poise. Beck navigated pressure well, showed off real arm talent on his deep shots, and executed play designs — including some nicely timed pump fakes — like someone who'd already seen these looks before. It was, by most accounts on the ground in Canton, the best individual performance on the field for a good chunk of the first half. If Beck keeps this up through the rest of the preseason, it's going to make Arizona's long-term quarterback conversation a lot more interesting, even with Jacoby Brissett currently holding down QB1 duties there.
How Arizona Almost Stole It Back
This game had no business being this competitive on paper, but Arizona made sure it was a fight to the final whistle. Quarterback Kedon Slovis, who took over after Beck's night ended, connected with Bryson Green on what was ruled a game-tying-and-then-some touchdown with just 1:55 left, putting the Cardinals up 30-27. The play was initially ruled incomplete on the field before a replay review overturned the call, confirming Green got both feet down in bounds while maintaining control. It looked, for about two minutes, like Arizona had just delivered the dagger.
Instead, it set the stage for King's heroics.
The Rest of the Box Score Worth Knowing
Undrafted Panthers running back Miles Davis broke off a 36-yard run late in the game to help set up a Ryan Fitzgerald field goal that extended Carolina's lead
Panthers running back AJ Dillon, who's dealt with injuries in recent years and is buried on the depth chart, popped off a 13-yard run in his most productive burst since his final season in Green Bay back in 2023
Neither team played its usual starters — Bryce Young sat out for Carolina, and Jacoby Brissett didn't suit up for Arizona, opening the door for exactly this kind of rookie showcase
So... Are These Teams Actually Contenders This Season?
Here's the honest answer: one preseason exhibition game, played almost entirely by backups and rookies, doesn't tell us much about whether either of these franchises is a real contender in 2026. Starters didn't play. Game plans were vanilla. This is about evaluation, not prediction.
That said, it's not nothing, either. For Carolina, seeing genuine competence and even flashes of dynamism from the third-string quarterback is a legitimately good sign for organizational depth — it means if something happens to Bryce Young, the season doesn't automatically fall off a cliff. Whether the Panthers are a true top-tier contender still hinges almost entirely on Young taking the leap many have been waiting on, not on King's summer heroics, promising as they were.
For Arizona, Carson Beck's debut is the more organically exciting storyline. Rookie quarterbacks who look this composed in their first NFL action, even in a low-stakes preseason setting, tend to get people talking — and rightfully so. But he's third on the depth chart behind Brissett for a reason, and turning one strong half into a real path to QB1 will take a lot more than a solid Hall of Fame Game.
The bigger picture: neither Carolina nor Arizona enters the season as a consensus top contender based on where their rosters currently sit. But both franchises walked away from Canton with something valuable — a little bit of hope, and a real look at pieces that could matter a lot more than expected if things break right this season.
