Phil Snow on Derrick Brown: "He's Exactly What We Thought He Was"
So much is made about winning the game in the trenches and head coach Matt Rhule understood that in order to rebuild a defense, you have to work from the front, back. He and GM Marty Hurney had their eyes set on Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown and were extremely happy to have him still on the board at No. 7.
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The Panthers already have a savvy veteran in Kawann Short on the interior of the defensive line, but now, they have a one-two punch with Brown now in the fold.
Thursday afternoon, Panthers defensive coordinator Phil Snow praised Brown's ability to effect the game in the trenches and is expecting big things from him in his rookie season.
"He's exactly what we thought he is," Snow said. "He's a big, physical man inside and obviously, he's really effective against the run game. A lot of the people we play are getting rid of the ball really quickly and they're throwing the ball 5.5-6 yards from the line of scrimmage. So what you need is guys inside not to sack the quarterback, but to put pressure and effect the way they throw. Derrick can really push the pocket inside, so he's exactly what we thought he was going to be - obviously he will get better every week and he's been getting better every week. We're really happy with him."
The argument can be made that Brown was the best defensive player in this past year's NFL Draft and may have been the 2nd best player in the entire draft class behind QB Joe Burrow who went first overall to the Bengals.
During Brown's senior year at Auburn, he collected 54 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, and four sacks. As Snow mentioned, it's not expected of him to go out and get 10-12 sacks in a given season, but more so to help create 10-12 sacks if not more.
Brown is projected to be in the Panthers' starting lineup next Sunday when the team opens its 2020 regular season vs the Las Vegas Raider at 1 p.m.
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