Undrafted rookie quarterback Haynes King led the Carolina Panthers to a 33-30 win over the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night, capping the comeback with a five-yard touchdown scramble as time expired. In his NFL debut, he shined with three total touchdowns.
"I feel like I went out there and operated at a high level." King said. "And I feel like I affected a lot of people and allowed everybody around me to play better as well."
King spent his most of his college career at Georgia Tech, throwing for more than 6,600 yards and 47 TDs. Despite him being a local product with loads of potential, the Atlanta Falcons never went after him as he landed in Carolina as a UDFA--and his debut helped to prove the Falcons wrong for letting him land with a division rival.
Haynes King is making the Falcons regret not signing him as a UDFA
Meanwhile the Falcons are still trying to figure out who their quarterback even is. Kevin Stefanski and Matt Ryan's new regime has done everything right this offseason. They extended Bijan Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts and Matthew Bergeron, all top five contracts at their respective positions.
The hard part is quarterback, and Atlanta still doesn't have an answer.Â
Michael Penix Jr. is reportedly weeks away from full practice work as he rehabs a second major knee surgery. Tua Tagovailoa, brought in on the cheap because Miami is still paying most of his salary, is holding down the job in the meantime. Neither inspires much confidence given their injury history.
A developmental arm like King, one who was already familiar with the Atlanta area, already had local buzz from his Georgia Tech days, and clearly has the physical tools NFL evaluators want, would have made a lot of sense as a low-cost flier behind that competition.Â
Instead, he's auditioning for a spot in Carolina, and doing it well enough that Kenny Pickett should probably be worried that he'll push for the QB2 job.
Now to be fair, plenty of quarterbacks who look good in an August exhibition never sniff a regular season snap. King torched a secondary that had backups on backups, and Carolina's own defense got shredded right back by Carson Beck in the same game.
It’s also worth noting that the Falcons have undrafted rookie QB Jack Strand is looking good as well, so Atlanta doesn't necessarily need another QB, especially as Penix and Tua continue to get more healthy--but it's an interesting what-if to consider had they chose to roll with King over Strand.
And while Haynes King probably won’t turn into Carolina's next franchise quarterback, how cool would it have been for the Atlanta Falcons to develop their own local product into a fan favorite backup and give their fans another reason to root for a former Georgia Tech star on Sundays?
Unfortunately, now we'll never know.
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