Who is Derrick Brown? Meet your newest Carolina Panthers draft pick, aka ‘Baby Barack’
Derrick Brown impressed his teammates at Auburn from the start, as much for his otherworldly athleticism on the field as for outgoing nature off of it.
His teammates started calling him “Baby Barack” after former president Obama.
Brown, picked No. 7 overall by the Carolina Panthers in Thursday’s NFL draft, was once vice president of Auburn’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council and the team’s representative on the SEC Football Leadership Council. Brown once fought to get more money — to $75 from $40 — for students who host football recruits.
Brown also built homes on mission trips to the Dominican Republic and donated his time to food banks and toy drives. When he’s done playing, Brown has said he wants to be a lobbyist.
And there probably aren’t too many 6-foot-5, 320 pounds lobbyists walking around in suits on Capitol Hill.
Brown could’ve entered the draft after his junior season, but he and longtime girlfriend Tayla Main, had a child, Kai Asher, and Brown wanted to set a good example by finishing his education. Kai Asher is 16 months old now and the couple is expecting another child later this year.
The Panthers are getting a player who has a degree in marketing, a family man and a guy who has a penchant for getting into the backfield.
ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. estimated that Brown was the third-best talent in this year’s draft.
Brown should immediately fill one of the Panthers’ biggest needs. Carolina is thin up front on defense. Three starters from last season — Gerald McCoy, Dontari Poe and Vernon Butler — are not returning.
Brown is considered the top defensive tackle in the 2020 draft after starting the past three seasons at Auburn, where he had 159 tackles, 32 tackles for loss and 12 sacks in his career. Last season, he totaled 55 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and four pass deflections.
“You could make an argument he’s the third-best player in this draft,” Kiper said. “I don’t have him third on the board right now. You could say, ‘Well, (I) don’t think Joe Burrow is an elite quarterback. You have to put Chase Young up there, I would believe. Then one of the quarterbacks, Burrow, I don’t know about Tua (Tagovailoa) with the injury ... but if not Burrow, you have (Ohio State cornerback Jeff) Okudah and Simmons. And you say, ‘Well, Simmons is versatile,’ but you know Derrick Brown is a wrecker up front. So you can make an argument third-best, maybe fourth-best player, and (Carolina) is picking seventh. That’s a pretty good option to have.”
Required NFL draft reading
+ Fowler: Nothing sexy about the Panthers drafting Derrick Brown, but he’s exactly what they need
+ DeCock: We were sold on the Panthers being innovative with Matt Rhule. So why draft Derrick Brown?
+ Pick is in! Panthers take Derrick Brown from Auburn
+ Derrick Brown scouting report: He’s a clear Day 1 starter
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 10:01 PM.
