Drafting Derrick Brown fills the Carolina Panthers’ biggest need at defensive tackle
Coming into the NFL draft, it became clear that the Panthers could end up with a difficult decision to make with the seventh overall pick. And that’s exactly what happened.
Carolina had the choice between some of the best defensive players in the draft or trading back. When it came down to Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown and Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons, the Panthers went with Brown, choosing to go with the player that helped them improve the most up front.
“We had (Brown and Simmons) very close together, obviously, but I think (Matt Rhule and I) both believed that you start building from the front,” general manager Marty Hurney said. “Derrick not only helps guys like (Kawann Short) and the rest of the line, he helps attack, he helps the linebackers, he’s a big powerful player who’s got a really good first step. We think he’s a three-down player, obviously helps you against run, but he really gets pushed up the middle.”
Brown fills an immediate need for the Panthers after the team lost multiple starting defensive linemen this offseason, including defensive tackles Gerald McCoy and Vernon Butler and defensive ends Mario Addison and Bruce Irvin.
Simmons went one pick later to the Cardinals, and Rhule pointed out that while the linebacker is viewed as versatile, Brown is as well, just in a different way.
“He’s a guy to us that allows us to go to three-down four-down, he can be the nose, he can be a three-technique. He’s even gone out in a five-technique,” Rhule said. “People want to ask about one player like he’s versatile. Big men that can move like him are versatile. And so we can use him all across the front.”
Because of the losses in free agency, the Panthers needed a lot of help up front from this year’s draft. Hurney shared that they did not expect him to still be on the board when they picked seventh. The first round could not have gone much better for Carolina with three quarterbacks getting selected by the teams ahead of them, helping Simmons and Brown slide to them at seven.
The Panthers have selected a defensive tackle in the first round twice before — Vernon Butler in 2016 and Star Lotulelei in 2013. Both players are now with the Bills.
Brown is the sixth player from Auburn that Carolina has drafted and the second Tiger they’ve taken in the first round (Cam Newton, 2011). He is the first defensive tackle and third defensive player from Auburn overall to be selected in the top-10 in the common draft era (Carlos Rodgers, No. 9 in 2005, and Aundray Bruce, No. 1 in 1988).
One thing that stood out to the Panthers about Brown was his commitment to football. Many coaches they spoke to when researching him pointed out that he was a great “practice player.”
“I texted Marty this morning first thing and I said, ‘hey, I’m rewatching the bowl game, and here’s a guy that came back for his senior year.’ He’s a consensus top 10 pick. He goes to play in the Citrus Bowl, he’s not playing in the playoffs, he’s playing against the University of Minnesota, he plays every snap,” Rhule said. “There’s a goal line stand where he is just clicking as hard as he can. And to me, that’s what we need right now in this time, we need guys that are dedicated to getting it done.”
Brown is known for being a high-character person off the field. He was Auburn’s representative on the SEC Community Service Team, served as a member of the SEC Leadership Council and was president of the school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Being a part of the community is something his family instilled in him.
The 22-year-old Brown could have come out of college last year and been selected early in the 2019 draft, but elected to remain in school another year so he could graduate, which he accomplished in December. A year later, he said that decision was absolutely the right one.
“Best decision of my life,” Brown said. “I got my degree in hand and I was a top-10 pick. Can’t ask for much more in this life.”
At 6-foot-4, 326 pounds, the unanimous All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year had 55 tackles, four sacks, four passes defensed and two forced fumbles in his senior year.
He is an explosive player and set Auburn’s record with a 590-pound squat and had 24 bench-press reps at the combine. Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady told Rhule that Brown was the hardest player to game plan for in the SEC last year when he was with LSU. He still had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack in that game, holding LSU to 23 points, the Tigers’ lowest output of the season.
Disruptive is the word most commonly associated with him and Brown himself pointed out he can do more than one thing.
“Everybody wants to say I’m a run-stuffer, you know, I do it all. Go back and watch my tape,” Brown said. “It’s just one of those things where I think I’m an all three-down player and I’m not my here to sit there and try to you know make everybody like me, but I’m here to do what I do.”
His college production wasn’t anything flashy and he’s not necessarily expected to be a high-sack producer in the NFL, even if he is creating significant pressure. His overall combine numbers were less-than-desired, especially his three-cone drill (8.22 seconds) and short shuttle (4.79 seconds).
The Panthers met with him multiple times throughout the pre-draft process, including Hurney attending his pro day and the team meeting with him at the Senior Bowl. Rhule said that he left that meeting touched by what Brown had to say and taken back by particular comments he made.
“The one thing that he said to me was, he kept talking about his d-line coach and how much his d-line coach meant to him ... People that are successful in life usually are very grateful people,” Rhule said. “They don’t look at everything as negative, they look at it as positive. And when he talked about his defensive line coach, here’s a guy getting ready to make a bunch of money and he’s talking about how much this man’s impacted his life. I said, ‘well that must be a great d-line coach, coach (Rodney) Garner,’ and then at the same time I also said this is someone who really gets really kind of grabbed me.”
Brown was surrounded by his family, girlfriend and his son, Kai Asher, when chosen by the Panthers.
“When that phone started vibrating on that table, it’s that now or never moment, you don’t know who it is,” Brown said. “I pick up the phone and it’s the Carolina Panthers, I couldn’t be more excited to be a Panther in my life. It’s just a surreal moment, because there’s no words to describe it.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 9:08 PM.
