Panthers trade Robbie Anderson to Cardinals after kicking him off the field

Anderson was sent to the locker room by interim coach Steve Wilks in the fourth quarter of a 24-10 road loss Sunday. Anderson, who did not have a pass target in the game, had been jawing with wide receivers coach Joe Dailey.

“I’ve never been told, in X amount of years, to get out of the game in the fourth quarter, so I was honestly confused and upset by that, as I should be,” Anderson told reporters after the game. “I don’t see nobody that’s a true competitor and know the value they bring, and has true passion toward the game, being okay with being told not to do something, or being taken out of something when they didn’t do nothing wrong.”

Anderson had a heated exchange with Dailey in the first half, after which the seventh-year player spent much of the rest of the half on the sideline.

Per accounts from the game, Anderson was back on the field early in the second half but was quickly relegated to a stationary bicycle on the sideline. At one point, Anderson was spotted sitting on a cooler well away from the area of the Panthers’ bench where the rest of the team’s wide receivers were congregated.

Later, after another unhappy exchange with Dailey, Anderson was sent off by a visibly agitated Wilks.

Anderson’s departure was reported during the broadcast of the game as not related to any injury.

“No one is bigger than the team,” Wilks told reporters at a postgame news conference. “I’m not going to focus and put a lot of attention on one individual.”

Adding that he was more than willing to talk about the game and how the Panthers might move forward, Wilks said, “I’m not putting a lot of energy into one individual.”

Anderson and the Panthers were playing in their first game since the team fired coach Matt Rhule, who coached the wide receiver at Temple University and brought him to Carolina as a free agent in 2020. Anderson had spent his first four seasons with the New York Jets, where at times he looked like one of the NFL’s more dangerous deep threats.

He blossomed in his first season with Carolina, setting career highs with 95 catches for 1,096 yards. However, those numbers were almost cut in half last season, and he entered Sunday’s game with 13 catches in five games for 206 yards, plus one touchdown.

Before the game, in which the Panthers fell to 1-5, Fox Sports reported that the team was “shopping” Anderson around the league, in addition to taking calls about star running back Christian McCaffrey.

NFL Sunday takeaways: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers look old, creaky and cranky

Asked whether Anderson and perhaps any other Panthers had been shaken by Rhule’s departure, Wilks replied that “all the guys were all-in” during “a great week of practice.”

In a somewhat surprising move, the Panthers also allowed Anderson to take the postgame podium. He said it was his choice to take questions from reporters, calling that “the best decision for me.”

“My job is, and I’m here, to do all I can to help us win,” Anderson said. “It’s third down and I’m being taken out of the game — I don’t think I should be okay with that, you know what I’m saying? So I made a comment: ‘It’s a money down; why am I being taken out?’ And that’s that.”

Anderson claimed he had “no idea” why he was taken out of the game and insisted he always gave “my all and my everything” to aid a winning effort.

“I don’t play this game for money, and I don’t play this game for fame or things like that,” he told reporters. “I play this game because I love the game of football, and regardless of what’s been going on in the past week, I always keep my head down and keep working. All I want to do is help us win the Super Bowl … so I’m never going to belittle myself from that aspect or let my character be diminished and be misunderstood, because that’s really all it is.”

Asked whether he wanted to be traded, Anderson replied that he was content to “let God follow his plans for my life.”