Derrick
Brown.
Derrick
Brown.
Auburn· 6'5"· 326 lb· 5.16s 40
"A 325-pound interior wall who plays with heavy hands and rare balance, Derrick Brown was the safest defensive player in the class precisely because his best trait — control of the line of scrimmage — never has a bad week."Pre-draft read
Brown is a two-gap interior defender who wins with mass, hand strength and leverage rather than first-step quickness. He stacks a single blocker, walks him into the backfield and sheds late, and he holds the point against double teams as well as any lineman in the class. Auburn moved him from nose to three-technique depending on the front, and the run defense never dropped.
The pass rush is power-based. He converts speed to power with a long-arm and bull, collapses the pocket up the middle, and finishes with a heavy club-rip when the guard oversets. He is not a bend-and-corner rusher and he will not chase plays sideline to sideline, but the push he generates makes life easier for everyone around him.
Multiple front defense that asks its interior to two-gap on early downs and rush from a three-technique on passing downs
Year 1 starting interior defender playing 60 percent of snaps; ceiling is the best run-stopping tackle in football and a perennial Pro Bowler
A one-gap attacking front that grades interior linemen only by sack totals and asks him to shoot upfield every snap
Value him as a defensive foundation, not a pressure creator, and the contract math works
Auburn DT Derrick Brown 2019 Highlights
SEC Defensive Player of the Year season, including the Alabama and LSU tape.
Derrick Brown's college football highlights | Auburn DT | 2020 NFL Draft
Pre-draft cut-up of the anchor work and power rush.
Auburn DT Derrick Brown Highlights
Extended reel showing the hand usage and shed at the point of attack.
Brown is the most complete interior run defender in the 2020 class, a four-year SEC contributor who became a full-time wrecking ball as a senior. The football identity is control: he dictates where the blocker goes, keeps his frame clean and closes plays inside the tackle box. For a defensive coordinator who wants to play base defense on early downs without hiding anyone, he is the answer.
The career line across 53 games is 170 tackles, 35 tackles for loss and 13 sacks, with eight passes defensed and five forced fumbles. He grew every year: 11 tackles as a freshman, 56 as a sophomore, then 48 with 11 for loss as a junior, and finally 55 tackles with 13 for loss, four sacks and two forced fumbles as a senior. That last season brought SEC Defensive Player of the Year and consensus All-America honors, and the Alabama and LSU tape is the evidence — he was the best player on the field against the best offenses in the country.
The question is the pass rush ceiling. Thirteen sacks in four years is modest for a top-ten pick, and the counter moves are still a work in progress. Teams valuing interior pressure above all else had him lower; teams valuing a defense that cannot be run on had him top five. Carolina, rebuilding an entire defensive front, took him at seven.
- 01
Elite anchor
Holds the point against double teams and rarely loses ground, letting linebackers play clean on early downs all game.
- 02
Heavy, violent hands
Strikes first, controls the blocker's chest and sheds late with the strength to discard guards one-handed.
- 03
Positional versatility
Played nose, three-technique and four-eye in Auburn's fronts without a drop in run production.
- 04
Power rush
Converts momentum into a bull that collapses the pocket up the middle and resets the quarterback's launch point.
- 05
Four-year SEC production
170 tackles and 35 tackles for loss across 53 games, capped by SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2019.
- 01
Modest sack totals
Thirteen sacks in four seasons is light for a premium interior pick and reflects a limited pass-rush plan.
- 02
Average first step
Does not beat centers and guards off the snap, so he has to win with hands rather than timing.
- 03
Limited counters
When the initial power rush stalls he lacks a reliable secondary move, and the rep dies against guards who absorb the first blow.
- 04
Range outside the box
Heavy frame shows up in pursuit; he will not run down plays that break to the perimeter.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.16sp50
- Vertical
- 27inp50
- Broad jump
- 108inp50
- Three-cone
- 8.22sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.79sp50
- Bench
- 28repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Auburn | 13 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | Auburn | 14 | 56 | 3.5 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 2018 | Auburn | 13 | 48 | 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2019 | Auburn | 13 | 55 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Career | — | 53 | 170 | 13 | 0 | 8 | 5 |
Sports-Reference totals including bowl games; season sums match the career line exactly in every column.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Elite early-down run stopper with useful power rush and limited sack production.
Massive interior anchor who erases run games and gives a defense its structural identity for a decade.
Big-bodied nose who holds up on run downs but comes off the field in obvious passing situations.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Brown started 15 games as a rookie and grew into the identity of Carolina's defense. He posted 41 tackles and three sacks in 2021, then tied a franchise record for a defensive lineman with 67 tackles in 2022. The 2023 season was the breakout: 103 tackles, a record for a defensive lineman since the stat was tracked, seven for loss, two sacks and a Pro Bowl nod while playing 89 percent of the snaps against double teams on 42 percent of them. Carolina extended him that April on a four-year, $96 million deal with more than $63 million guaranteed. A knee injury in Week 1 of 2024 cost him the season; he returned in 2025 for all 17 games with 73 tackles and a career-best five sacks, and he has opened 2026 with five tackles through two games.
The evaluation was right about the floor and slightly light on the value. Brown is a legitimate top-tier run defender who anchored a defense that had little else for years, and the pass-rush question turned out to be half-fair: he never became a double-digit sack producer, but pressure counts and run stops say his impact outruns the box score. The counterfactual — Carolina passed on Isaiah Simmons and Tristan Wirfs at this pick — has aged fine. He is the rare defensive tackle whose team paid him early and has never regretted it.
Data note: Imported from Wikipedia 2020 NFL draft player selections table.