Carolina opens as a slight favourite over Arizona, with the Under 35.5 points offering the strongest betting value
Summer months are blowing by; the World Cup is more in the rear-view mirror, and the NFL pre-season kicks off tomorrow night with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH, the unofficial start of the preseason.
That and back-to-school advertising mean you’d better grab and hold on to summer while you can.
For bettors, that means it’s time to sharpen up on NFL knowledge. Week 1 of the NFL season kicks off with a Super Bowl rematch in Seattle between the Seahawks and the New England Patriots Sept. 9. It will be here before you know it.
Tomorrow night’s Hall of Fame Game between the Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals starts at 8 p.m. EST.
NFL preseason games are tougher to bet on, since it’s about competition for positions on the team. Starters are not going all out; instead, they are polishing things up for when the games get real.
It’s a time for rookies to put on a show. Teams with unsettled quarterback competitions, like in Cleveland, between Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson, often rotate QBs more evenly. Some coaches care about winning preseason games more than others, who are more interested in player evaluations.
Preseason games are often determined by second- and third-string players rather than the starters. Totals betting during NFL preseason usually skews under.
In NFL betting, for Thursday night’s preseason opener, Betway has the Panthers as slight -120 Moneyline favourites, while the Cardinals are listed at +100. Carolina is a 1.5-point favourite (+100), with Arizona +1.5 (-130). The total is set at 35.5 points, with both the Over and Under priced at -110.
Since there will be little exposure for starters during the game, with multiple quarterback rotations, and it’s still early in training camp, timing between quarterbacks and receivers is off, go with the Under 35.5 points (-110).
Cardinals’ head coach Mike LaFleur told reporters yesterday the team will start rookie quarterback Carson Beck tomorrow night. Beck was the team’s third-round pick in April’s NFL Draft and was listed as the third-string QB behind Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew II.
The Panthers are starting 2022 first-round pick Kenny Pickett, who’s listed as the backup behind Bryce Young.
Laying the -120 Carolina Moneyline is reasonable, then, since Pickett opening the game before turning things over to younger quarterbacks will give the Panthers an edge.
I’ll also take the Panthers Moneyline at -120, then.
It’s more about how coaches manage playing time and how backup quarterbacks perform. Beck had a distinguished college football career – 69.5% passing percentage, 11,725 yards, 88 touchdowns and 32 interceptions over five seasons at Georgia (2021-24) and Miami (2025).
Reports from Cardinals camp have highlighted his arm talent (NFL-level throws), his maturity and poise in the huddle, and his willingness to learn. Let’s see how he does tomorrow night, learning the playbook and building chemistry with reserve receivers.
In Cardinals’ camp, a lot of eyes are on wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who as yet hasn’t been the wideout the team had hoped for.
Pickett joined the Panthers as a free agent, with experience playing for the Steelers, Eagles and Raiders. Panthers’ coach Dave Canales said that experience, in different systems and different rosters, will serve Pickett well.
“I think it’s just the different experiences. Like a lot of people do run the same concepts, but people read it differently, or they start somewhere differently,” Pickett told the Panthers’ team news site.
“So it’s just kind of having that background knowledge of, ‘Hey, you know, this place, we went 1-2-3, low to high, high to low, whatever it may be, and just kind of bouncing ideas off each other in the quarterback room and figuring out what works best for us.”
