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CANTON, Ohio (WBTV) – The Carolina Panthers opened the 2026 NFL season with a win, even if it doesn’t count for much.
Carolina played the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday night in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame game in Ohio. After the Cardinals scored first, the Panthers stayed step-for-step with Arizona before taking their first lead early in the fourth quarter.
After taking the lead, the Cardinals and Panthers traded field goals, bringing the score to 27-23, Carolina, with just under seven minutes to play. Arizona marched down the field and scored to go up 30-27 with 1:55 to play, leaving Carolina enough time to lead a game-winning drive.
Rookie quarterback Haynes King engineered that drive for the Panthers, leading his offense 65 yards for the win. King capped off the winning drive with a five-yard touchdown run as time expired to give Carolina a 33-30 victory.
Undrafted out of Georgia Tech, King was the star of the night for the Panthers. Just a couple plays before his touchdown run, he scrambled for 26 yards on a third-and-14 play to get Carolina into the red zone with about 30 seconds left in the game.
He also threw for two touchdowns earlier in the game, and tallied 180 passing yards in less than three full quarters of action.
After the game, Panthers head coach Dave Canales said King did a “fantastic” job.
“Haynes did a fantastic job,” Canales said in his postgame press conference. “Whatever he had to do, run it, throw it, doesn’t matter — move the chains and keep it alive.”
Meanwhile King — who is the third quarterback on the depth chart behind Bryce Young and Kenny Pickett — said he felt like he “operated at a high level.”
“I’m very excited that I got this opportunity,” King said after the game. “I feel like I went out there and operated at a high level and I feel like, you know, I affected a lot of people and, you know, improved and allowed everybody around me to play better as well.”
Other players who performed well in Thursday’s Hall of Fame game include wide receivers Jimmy Horn, John Metchie and Ja’Seem Reed — all of whom are jockeying for roster spots in a crowded receiver room.
King and his teammates will have another opportunity to impress when the Panthers travel to Buffalo to play the Bills in their next preseason game. That matchup is set for Saturday, Aug. 15 at 1 p.m.
The Panthers will open the regular season at home on Sept. 13 against the Chicago Bears.
Quarterback Haynes King (16) ran for the game-winning touchdown in a 33-30 Panthers win in the Hall of Fame game.(David Dermer | AP Photo/David Dermer)
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