Houston at Carolina

Both of these quarterback rooms are compromised in some way heading into Friday. Houston lost Graham Mertz to a season-ending ACL tear in the opener, and has since leaned on Davis Mills and newly signed Brett Rypien to split snaps behind C.J. Stroud, who remains entrenched as the Week 1 starter with no reason to play this late in camp. Carolina’s situation is thinner than it looks: Haynes King is out with a hamstring injury from the Hall of Fame Game, and Dave Canales has said Bryce Young’s snaps hinge entirely on how much volume the Panthers get out of this week’s joint practice. If that practice delivers, Kyle Trask takes the bulk of the workload behind center for Carolina instead. A finale built around unsettled backup competitions on both sidelines plays like more of a coin flip than the number suggests, and Houston getting the better of that number is the right side of it. Take Houston.