The Carolina Panthers made one of their most note-worthy and significant moves of the offseason, and they did it taking care of one of their own for the long term.
The organization has agreed to terms with defensive tackle Derrick Brown on a multi-year contract extension Friday, which will keep the lion’s share of their defensive unit in place after his most productive individual season.
The former seventh-overall pick of the 2020 draft out of Auburn University, has agreed to terms with the Panthers on a four-year, $96 million extension with more than $63 million in guarantees, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported on Friday.
Brown was going into the final year of his rookie deal, and the extension allows them to kick off the offseason program next week on the right foot.
The deal came on the heels of an outstanding 2023 season in which he was selected to his first Pro Bowl.
Brown was not messing around, setting a league record for tackles by a defensive lineman with 103. Since they started tracking that stat in 1994, the 98 tackles Miami Dolphins’ Christian Wilkins posted in 2022 was the highest total ever. That came after Brown tied the Panthers franchise record with 67 last season, when he knotted Mike Rucker’s mark from 2002.
Embed from Getty Images“He’s had a heck of a year,” defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said of Brown’s performance. “He’s been so disruptive. I don’t think it’s arguably — I think he’s been the best run defender in the NFL this year. He’s done a heck of a job rushing the quarterback and creating pressures, the interception, the batted balls. There’s been so much production. The leadership. He’s been instrumental in everything that we’ve done.”
Brown also accomplished this while rarely coming off the field. He finished the year playing 940 snaps (89 percent of the team total), and only played fewer than 80 percent of the team’s snaps in two games all year both hot-weather affairs early in the season, at home against the Minnesota Vikings, and on the road at the Dolphins. After the bye in Week 7, he played at least 85 percent of the snaps in every game, and played every snap in the December win against the Atlanta Falcons.
“He plays hard,” Evero said. “I mean, and I’ve said it before, but probably the most impressive thing that he does for a man that big, 340-plus pounds, to run down the field, play hard every down. He’s making plays 40 yards down the field.
“He’s really, he’s a heck of a player. What you see in him is just continued growth and maturation and learning the NFL game, understanding, not only using his physical ability, but also all the nuances of the game that come with experience, and all of that is just playing out. Even before I took this job, I knew what a player he was and his reputation in the league is a guy that is hard to block. That’s been happening for a couple of years now.”
Now, the Panthers are guaranteed to have him in the middle of their defense, and the middle of their personality, for years to come.
