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08/05 13:06 CDT It'll be Carson Beck vs. Kenny Pickett when Cardinals-Panthers
open the NFL's exhibition season
It'll be Carson Beck vs. Kenny Pickett when Cardinals-Panthers open the NFL's
exhibition season
By ROB MAADDI
AP Pro Football Writer
Carson Beck makes his NFL debut and Kenny Pickett starts for his fifth team in
four years.
Welcome to the NFL preseason. If you want to see starters play, wait until next
month when the games count in the standings. Or watch joint practices.
The exhibition schedule kicks off Thursday night with Beck and the Arizona
Cardinals facing Pickett and the Carolina Panthers in the Hall of Fame Game in
Canton, Ohio.
The preseason is an opportunity for rookies, backups and players fighting for
roster spots to get snaps and showcase what they can do. Most first-round picks
won't play much. Cardinals running back Jerimiyah Love (No. 3 pick) and
Panthers tackle Monroe Freeling (No. 19) are sitting out the opener.
Beck, a third-round pick from Miami, will be under center for new Cardinals
coach Mike LaFleur. Veteran Jacoby Brissett is Arizona's starter and Gardner
Minshew is the backup.
"I had no clue I was going to start," Beck said. "Obviously, I thought I was
going to play but I really didn't have any expectations going into any of this.
Obviously, our schedule is absolutely crazy right now, practice, meetings. But
I'm looking forward to it."
Beck, who led the Hurricanes to a national championship matchup against
Indiana, said he won't have any butterflies before the game.
"I think the last time I was nervous was maybe when I was 8 years old for our
city championship in Pop Warner," Beck said. "It's a game at the end of the
day. It's an opportunity to go out there, have fun with your teammates and play
the game that I love. It's what I love doing."
Pickett, a first-round pick by the Steelers in 2022 who led Pittsburgh to a
14-10 record in two seasons, has bounced around the league.
He spent the 2024 season with the Eagles before Philadelphia traded him to
Cleveland last year. The Browns sent him to the Raiders during training camp
and he started two games for Las Vegas. The Panthers signed Pickett to back up
Bryce Young.
"Just want to go out there and operate a high level," Pickett said. "All the
hard work that we're putting in practice you want to see come to life on game
day and that's everyone just doing their job and executing."
Carolina won the NFC South last season with an 8-9 record. But the Panthers led
the 12-win Rams in the final minute of their wild-card playoff game before NFL
MVP Matthew Stafford threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson with 38
seconds left for a 34-31 victory.
The Panthers have been getting after each other in practice, so coach Dave
Canales is looking forward to seeing his team hit an opponent.
"Tempers are flaring a little bit and I just have to remind them none of that
helps us. It throws us out of the rhythm of practice," Canales said.
Practice is everything for coaches in training camp.
Fewer teams play their starters in preseason games so they have to get them
ready for the regular season in practice. Joint practices --- teams facing
opponents ahead of their exhibition game --- are a growing trend in the NFL.
A total of 28 teams have scheduled joint practices which begin next week.
The Rams have joint practices with the Cowboys and Saints coming up.
"That'll be basically their preseason," Los Angeles coach Sean McVay said.
"We'll get an opportunity to see a lot of the younger guys play in the
preseason and those are great opportunities to play real football. When we put
the pads on, it's close, but you're still not playing tackle football. And
there are a couple spots. There are always important things that you want to be
able to see unfold and be able to establish some depth if, God forbid, we have
the inevitable injuries that do occur. But we'll take it a day at a time and
there's so many things."
The Detroit Lions are one of the four teams that won't have any joint practices
so some of their starters could see action in the preseason games.
"We have got to get these guys ready for a season," Lions coach Dan Campbell
said. "There's a chance we play some of these guys in the preseason without the
joint practices, and so I'm going to do what I think is best to prepare these
guys for 17 weeks, but also understand that we have got to be smart about it
and we can't break them in training camp, and so the approach will stay the
same, it will, and you have got to get ready, and you can't let fear of injury
scare you away from what you believe in."
Several key players already have been hurt in practices over the past week. The
Panthers lost second-year edge rusher Nic Scourton to a torn ACL on the first
day of camp. They also saw wide receiver Chris Brazzell II go down with a torn
LCL.
New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Bryan Bresee tore his ACL last week.
Atlanta Falcons edge rusher Jalon Walker was carted off the field with a knee
injury on Tuesday.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
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