Panthers Clips
Quarterback Kyle Trask officially joined the Panthers on Sunday.
Word on Saturday was that the Panthers would sign Trask to fill out their quarterback room in the wake of Haynes King’s hamstring injury. The rookie was injured in the Hall of Fame Game and is expected to miss some time.
Trask was a second-round pick in Tampa in 2021 and he played in seven games as a backup. He failed to make the team last summer and spent time on the Falcons’ practice squad during the regular season.
The Panthers also announced that they have waived wide receiver Malick Meiga and linebacker Nick Hampton with injury designations.
Panthers quarterback Haynes King injured his hamstring in the Hall of Fame Game this week and they are set to add another quarterback to the roster for the coming practice week.
Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer reports that they will sign Kyle Trask. Trask recently worked out for the team.
Trask played for the Buccaneers when Panthers head coach Dave Canales was the offensive coordinator in Tampa. He spent four seasons with the Bucs before being released last year and spent some time on Atlanta’s practice squad later in the year.
Joe Person of TheAthletic.com reports that King is considered week-to-week as a result of the hamstring injury.
Luke Kuechly, at 35, became the second-youngest Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee ever on Saturday. Only Gale Sayers, who was enshrined in 1977 at 34, was younger.
Kuechly earned a bust in Canton in his second year of eligibility after playing only eight seasons.
His 14-minute speech remembered those who helped get him to Canton and the life lessons football taught him.
“This game teaches you a lot if you’re willing to observe and listen,” Kuechly said. “It’s taught me resilience, consistency, toughness, the value of communication, how to find common ground, and most importantly, how to enjoy it along the way, because often times the best moments are the ones you are in. Ron Rivera used to beat that into our head and say, ‘Be where your feet are.’ Well, he didn’t just mean be where your feet are when you’re at the Super Bowl, playing with and against incredible players. He meant, be where your feet are all the time, and that’s been great advice.
“The joy football gave me didn’t come from any particular win. It came from competing, from studying, from practicing and from preparing, and joy came from the people I was with. I think about the bus rides, the plane flights, being with each other at Wofford College during training camp. You’ve never seen guys so happy to have a night off and eat pizza with their buddies.
“The relationships formed through football are unique. You see each other at your best and at your worst. You spend long days together in meeting rooms. You learn how different people communicate, lead and overcome challenges. And over time, teammates become friends, and friends become family. That’s why, when people ask me what I miss most about football, it’s not one specific game or one specific play. It’s the locker room. It’s conversations that have nothing to do with sports. It’s celebrating together after wins, and hurting together after losses.
“There’s no way to measure what the game of football has given to me, the joy it’s provided, and, more than anything, the people that I have been so blessed to be around as a result of this game.”
Kuechly became the third Panthers legend in five years to be inducted into the Hall, joining Sam Mills and Julius Peppers.
Despite his short career, Kuechly made 1,092 tackles, more than 100 tackles in all eight seasons. He was the league’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, a Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and part of the All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have been touched by the game of football,” Kuechly said in wrapping up his speech. “Football has given me so much more than I could have ever imagined. The people I’ve met, the experiences we’ve shared and the joy I’ve found through this game will stay with me for the rest of my life. Your love and support have meant more than you’ll ever know. So thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey. Thank you for sharing today with me. And Keep Pounding.”
NFL preseason games don’t matter in the standings, but they matter a lot to undrafted rookies trying to make the team. And few undrafted rookies have had as impressive a preseason debut as Panthers quarterback Haynes King in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game.
King completed 21 of 34 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, with no sacks and no turnovers, and he also ran for 39 yards, including the game-winning touchdown run as time expired. King spoke afterward about how much it meant to him to play like that in Canton, Ohio, in front of dozens of Hall of Famers in town for enshrinement weekend.
“It was a dream come true,” King said. “Growing up, you hear about all these first-ballot Hall of Famers, and to see some of them walking in front of you before the game is pretty amazing. And to be able to showcase your talent in front of them is a dream come true.”
The 25-year-old King spent six years in college football and was the ACC Player of the Year at Georgia Tech last season, but he went undrafted because he was regarded as more of a runner than a passer. He looked very comfortable throwing the ball on Thursday night.
“I’m very excited that I got this opportunity, and I feel like I went out there and operated at a high level,” King said. “I allowed everybody around me to play better as well.”
When King dove across the goal line on the final play of the game, the Panthers’ sideline went crazy, and head coach Dave Canales loved that.
“Haynes is a fantastic athlete and he just finds a way to win, and that’s what he did,” Canales said. “Really proud of the group and also proud of the whole team celebrating. That’s something we pride ourselves on, celebrating how hard we work on these situations and then watching it come alive.”
Haynes King wasn’t drafted despite being the ACC Player of the Year last season. The Panthers signed the former Georgia Tech star quarterback as a free agent, and he showed Thursday night maybe someone should have drafted him.
Third on the team’s depth chart, King replaced veteran Kenny Pickett with 9:38 remaining in the first half and the Panthers trailing 14-7.
King completed 21 of 34 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, a 15-yarder and a 5-yarder.
He also ran for 39 yards on three carries, including scoring on a 5-yard jaunt on the final play of the game. It gave the Panthers a 33-30 victory.
In one of the most entertaining Hall of Fame Games ever, the Cardinals gained 425 yards and the Panthers 378. Rookie Carson Beck started for Arizona and went 15-of-19 for 188 yards and a touchdown before turning it over to fourth-string quarterback Kedon Slovis, who was 9-of-10 for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Carson Beck has played in much bigger games than the Hall of Fame Game, so it probably should come as no surprise that the lights weren’t too bright or the stage too big.
Beck started for the Cardinals in the first preseason game of the NFL season.
He showed up and showed out.
Beck played a little more than a half, completing 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown. He hit Reggie Virgil for what would have been a big gain on his final throw of the night in the third quarter, but Isaiah Simmons knocked it out.
He directed scoring drives of 96, 50 and 61 yards, throwing a 5-yard fade to a well-covered Simi Fehoko for a touchdown on the team’s second scoring drive.
The Cardinals were tied with the Panthers 17-17 when Beck left with 10:15 remaining in the third quarter.
Fourth-stringer Kedon Slovis replaced Beck.
The Panthers waived wide receiver Ainias Smith with an injury settlement and released guard Saahdiq Charles with an injury settlement, the team announced Thursday.
Charles went on injured reserve Wednesday with a calf injury, opening a roster spot for the return of offensive lineman Jake Curhan.
Charles, 27, spent most of last season on the Panthers’ practice squad, appearing in two games. He saw action on 10 special teams snaps.
Smith went on injured reserve Wednesday with an undisclosed injury.
The Eagles selected him in the fifth round of the 2024 draft. Smith appeared in seven games, starting one, and totaled seven receptions for 41 yards and one touchdown. He spent all of 2025 on the Panthers’ practice squad.
The Panthers placed offensive lineman Saahdiq Charles on injured reserve Wednesday, the team announced. Charles, who had been working with the first team with starters Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis out, has a calf injury.
Charles, 27, spent most of last season on the Panthers’ practice squad, appearing in two games. He saw action on 10 special teams snaps.
The Panthers signed offensive lineman Jake Curhan and defensive tackle Parker Petersen.
Curhan was signed off the Cardinals’ practice squad last year and appeared in 13 games, starting one. He has familiarity with the coaching staff from his time in Seattle.
Curhan, 28, has appeared in 53 career games, with 12 starts over five seasons.
Petersen, an undrafted rookie from Wisconsin, was waived last week. He will give the team another body familiar with the defense after defensive end LaBryan Ray’s retirement on Tuesday.
Carson Beck had “no clue” he was going to start the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game until this week. He was the last to know.
As (almost) everyone knows, veteran quarterbacks don’t generally play in the Hall of Fame Game.
The third-round rookie is new to this thing, though.
“I thought I was going to play, but I had no expectations,” Beck said Tuesday, via Darren Urban of the team website. “Obviously our schedule has been crazy right now. But I’m looking forward to it.”
Coach Mike LaFleur has not publicly addressed playing time for his quarterbacks, but with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew expected to spend the night on the sideline, Beck likely sees most of the playing time. Fourth-stringer Kedon Slovis also could play.
Beck said he hasn’t been nervous for a game since he was 8 years old and playing for his Pop Warner city championship, and that won’t change Thursday night.
“It’s a game at the end of the day,” Beck said. “Not really any nerves. More excitement than anything.”
Beck, 24, spent six seasons in college and played in the national championship game last season for the University of Miami. So, he should be unfazed playing a preseason game against the Panthers on Thursday.
“That’s one of the best things about him, all of his experience,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said. “His age, his understanding that things are going to go good, [and] they are going to go bad. You can never get too excited; you can never get too frustrated.”
The Panthers will be playing in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night, but defensive lineman LaBryan Ray won’t be getting any snaps against the Cardinals.
Ray won’t be getting any snaps in the rest of the team’s preseason games either. The Panthers announced on Tuesday that they have placed Ray on the reserve/retired list.
Ray played in 46 games for the Panthers over the last three seasons. He had 73 tackles and a sack on over 1,100 defensive snaps.
The Panthers also announced that they have signed wide receivers Roc Taylor and Elijah Cooks. Wideouts Gabriel Benyard and Ainias Smith were waived, which leaves Carolina with one open roster spot.
