RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Our long national nightmare ends tonight with the return of the NFL and the annual preseason kickoff at the Hall of Fame Game from Canton, Ohio. I highly recommend visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame if you ever get the chance. This year, the Carolina Panthers will "host" the Arizona Cardinals , with kickoff set for 8 p.m. ET and the game set to air on NBC.
The latest NFL odds at FanDuel Sportsbook list the Panthers are 1.5-point favorites, and the Over/Under for total points is set at 34.5. Fans who are interested in NFL betting at the best sports betting apps and top sports betting sites can stay up to date with information from our NFL news page. Bettors should also look for picks from the simulations of the SportsLine Projection Model and our experts on regular-season games for the 2026 NFL season.
I'm certainly not planning previews on every NFL exhibition game, but I may do so if there are standalones like this one, as I'll probably be betting on them like the rest of you. There are 34 days until the regular-season opener from Seattle on Sept. 9 – remember, kickoff is on Wednesday this year.
The NFL picks teams for this game that have players being inducted into the Hall of Fame in the coming weekend. Carolina has former linebacker and NFL Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year Luke Kuechly going in. He had his career cut short by injury, so at 35 he will be tied for second-youngest player enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Arizona will see receiver Larry Fitzgerald inducted, and he has the second-most receiving yards (17,492) in NFL history and sixth-most receiving TDs (121). The others being inducted Saturday are Drew Brees, Roger Craig and Adam Vinatieri .
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Needless to say, few if any starters on either side will play tonight. Kenny Pickett will get the call under center for Carolina, and obviously he's an established veteran if former first-round bust. I should say regular-season bust as Pickett holds a career passer rating of just 78.2. That would have ranked 35th in the NFL last season – when Pickett did get into six games with the Raiders -- and behind the likes of Jameis Winston , Davis Mills , Joe Flacco and Chris Oladokun .
That said, in his nine-game preseason career Pickett has completed 77% of his passes for six touchdowns with no interceptions and a 116.7 passer rating that would have led the NFL in the 2025 regular season. But Pickett, locked in as the backup to Bryce Young , is only expected to play a couple of series and then give way to undrafted rookie Haynes King , a dual threat out of Georgia Tech.
Some franchise/head coaches care about the preseason and some don't. Carolina appears in the latter category even pre-dating current head coach Dave Canales by a year – he's in his third season. The Panthers have lost eight of their past nine exhibition games, with that lone win in 2024 at Buffalo.
Generally speaking, when a team loses a preseason game , it won't cover because the spreads are so low, and the Cats are indeed also 1-8 ATS in their past nine. Favorites are 5-1 in the past six Hall of Fame Games, for what that's worth. The Over has hit in the past four, and that's because set at such a minuscule total: 35.5 tonight, which is two points higher than any of the past four HOF games.
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While we somewhat know what to expect with Carolina, the Cardinals are a bit of a blank slate under an entirely new coaching staff led by Mike LaFleur, the former Rams offensive coordinator. First-year head coaches like to establish a winning culture out of the gate.
Rookie third-round pick Carson Beck out of Miami will start under center, and he's currently listed third-string on the roster behind Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew . Beck will become the first quarterback to play in the national title game and then the ensuing Hall of Fame Game the next NFL preseason since Matt Mauck in 2004. That Beck's first NFL pass is a completion is -175 and that it's a touchdown +10000.
Beck can become the first player in the BCS/College Football Playoff era to throw the final pass of the college football season – unfortunately an interception to cost my Canes a shot at the title vs. Indiana – and the first pass of the ensuing preseason. The Cardinals haven't won a preseason game away from home since 2023, but I like them at +1.5 here. The Under is 6-1 in their past seven exhibition games overall.
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