My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. The NFL returns Thursday, Aug. 6, with the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame game between the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, at 8 p.m. ET.
Carolina and Arizona are playing Thursday because Panthers and Cardinals greats, Panthers LB Luke Kuechly and Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald, are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, along with Drew Brees, Roger Craig and Adam Vinatieri.
As per Hall of Fame Game tradition, neither team will play its starters Thursday. There is a sharp way to handicap the NFL preseason. Between listening to coachspeak during training camp and getting a clue about the depth chart and player rotations, then doing a deep dive into the positional competitions.
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However, I’m celebrating the return of football the best way I know how and just straight up gambling here. Albeit I’ll show my math, so to speak, on how I landed on my bet. With that in mind, here’s my look for the Panthers-Cardinals Hall of Fame Game Thursday.
The three things I look for when betting the NFL preseason include coaching continuity, roster depth, and quarterback experience, and Carolina has an edge in two of those departments.
There will be a learning curve for Arizona under rookie head coach Mike LaFleur. Whereas this is Panthers head coach Canales’ third season on the job, and he’s had the same offensive and defensive coordinators for the first two seasons.
Obviously, both teams will be playing guys who may or may not make the regular-season roster. But the Panthers who were on the team last year will have an edge Thursday because they won’t have to learn a new system.
Carolina will start QB Kenny Pickett in the Hall of Fame Game, while the Cardinals are giving third-string rookie QB Carson Beck the nod on Thursday. While Pickett is a bad starting quarterback and on his fourth team in five NFL seasons, he is 16-11 as a starter and a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, compared to Beck, who was taken in the third round.
Furthermore, Pickett is more mobile, and I like backing the more mobile quarterbacks in the preseason. Offenses are less buttoned-up, and teams rarely have their starters on the field, so I want my quarterback to make plays off-structure.
Panthers rookie QB Haynes King will take over for Pickett eventually and Beck will turn the offense over to second-year Cardinals QB Kedon Slovis. For what it’s worth, I’ll take King over Slovis. Both went undrafted, but King was the 2025 ACC Player of the Year for Georgia Tech, and Slovis won zero college football awards.
Two of Carolina’s starters, DE Nic Scourton and rookie WR Chris Brazzell II, suffered season-ending injuries during the first two weeks of training camp. The injuries hurt the Panthers’ depth heading into the regular season, but neither team is playing its starters Thursday.
That said, Canales might push his backups harder and play the second-stringers longer, knowing he is already down two starters. I.e., there is more motivation for Carolina’s coaching staff to use more regular-season stuff.
Maybe I’m just talking myself into a bet because football is back and I’ve been waiting for this day since the Super Bowl. Nonetheless, I’m not going to not bet the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. After all, it’s tradition.
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