Running back Rashaad Penny is calling it a career after six injury-plagued NFL seasons.
The Carolina Panthers placed Penny on the reserve/retired list Tuesday morning and signed undrafted rookie wide receiver Tayvion Robinson.
Tuesday’s news comes on the heels of Penny recently declaring to the Charlotte Observer that he’s one of the best running backs in the NFL when healthy.
Penny, 28, signed with the Panthers in May and reunited with coach Dave Canales, the new head coach in Carolina. Canales overlapped with Penny in Seattle as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
“It was a really cool opportunity for me to see — I know Rashaad at his best — to see if we could get him to that kind of look,” Canales said on Tuesday. “And he came up and he just really, he felt like he wasn’t himself and I had to respect that going forward.”
“I don’t understand what that’s like, to have a feel, to have a vision and wanting your body to do exactly what you tell it to do and just not responding the right way. For sure, I was glad to be a part of this process with him because I’ve known him for so long. And I wish Rashaad the best.”
A former first-round pick, Penny played in Philadelphia last year but appeared in just three games and had 11 rushes for 33 yards.
Penny has recorded 1,951 career rushing yards and 13 TDs in 45 games (11 starts), nearly all of that with the Seahawks, who selected him 27th overall in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Robinson, 23, had 194 catches for 2,604 yards with 16 touchdowns (15 receiving, one punt return) in four seasons at Virginia Tech and Kentucky.
–Field Level Media
