Undrafted Rookie Haynes King Runs In the Winning Touchdown on the Last Play as Panthers Beat Cardinals 33-30 in the Hall of Fame Game

Update — August 13, 2026: Haynes King sustained a hamstring injury during the Hall of Fame Game win and was listed week-to-week, and the Panthers signed quarterback Kyle Trask on Aug. 9. The article previously reflected no change to the depth chart in the hours after the game, which has since changed.

Haynes King, an undrafted rookie and the Carolina Panthers’ third-string quarterback, scored on a 5-yard run with no time remaining on Thursday, August 6, 2026, to beat the Arizona Cardinals 33-30 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game — the first game of the 2026 NFL preseason, played in Canton, Ohio.

King entered in the second quarter with Carolina trailing 14-7 and played the rest of the way. He completed 21 of his 34 passes for 180 yards, with two touchdown passes and no interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards, and the last five of those came on the winning play. Panthers coach Dave Canales said afterward, in remarks carried by the Associated Press, that King “did a fantastic job, just keeping the play alive, doing whatever he had to do, run it, throw it.”

Key facts

Final score: Panthers 33, Cardinals 30.
When and where: Thursday, August 6, 2026, in Canton, Ohio.
What it was: the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, the first game of the 2026 NFL preseason.
Winning play: a 5-yard run by Haynes King with no time remaining.
King’s night: 21 of 34 passing for 180 yards, two touchdown passes, no interceptions, and 39 rushing yards.
The starting quarterbacks: Kenny Pickett for Carolina, 8 of 11 for 62 yards, and Carson Beck for Arizona, 15 of 19 for 188 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Who King is: an undrafted rookie who signed with Carolina in April and was the 2025 ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year at Georgia Tech.

How the finish unfolded

Neither team played its front-line starters, which is normal for a preseason opener. Carolina said before the game that its expected starters, Bryce Young among them, would not play. Kenny Pickett started at quarterback for Carolina and completed 8 of 11 passes for 62 yards before giving way to King. King threw a second-quarter touchdown to receiver Ja’Seem Reed, and the teams traded scores from there into the fourth quarter, when his second touchdown pass put Carolina ahead.

Arizona answered late. Arizona quarterback Kedon Slovis threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Green with 1:55 to play. Officials ruled no touchdown on the field. A replay review overturned that call and gave Arizona the points, and the Cardinals led 30-27.

King then took the Panthers 65 yards the other way. The drive’s biggest play was his 26-yard scramble on third-and-14; its last was his 5-yard run into the end zone as the clock hit zero.

Who Haynes King is

King went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft and signed with Carolina in April; NFL Network reported the deal included $250,000 in guarantees. He began his college career at Texas A&M, where he won the starting job in 2021 but fractured his leg that September, then transferred to Georgia Tech. There he started from 2023 through 2025, was named the 2025 ACC Player of the Year and the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year, and finished 10th in that year’s Heisman Trophy voting.

The quarterback on the other side

Thursday’s opposing starter was a familiar face. Arizona started Carson Beck, a rookie making his NFL debut. Beck played for Georgia when he faced King’s Georgia Tech team in a 44-42 game that took eight overtimes in 2024. On Thursday he completed 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards, with a touchdown to Simi Fehoko and no interceptions, and did not play after halftime. The Cardinals’ regular starter, veteran Jacoby Brissett, was rested by first-year head coach Mike LaFleur.

What the game does and doesn’t settle

A preseason opener decides very little on its own. On the depth chart Carolina released on August 3, Bryce Young — who sat the game out — is the starting quarterback, Pickett is the backup, and King is third. That order held only briefly: King, the game’s own standout, sustained a hamstring injury during the win and was listed week-to-week, and the Panthers signed veteran quarterback Kyle Trask on Aug. 9 to fill out the room.

The game opened Carolina’s four-game 2026 preseason schedule. The Hall of Fame Game is played each year in Canton during the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s enshrinement weekend; the enshrinement ceremony itself is a separate event.

Dates ahead

August 15, 2026 — a Panthers preseason game at Buffalo.
August 30, 2026 — the league’s 2026 deadline for teams to cut down to 53 players.