The winless Panthers don’t have a lot going for them, but at least they have Derrick Brown.
As each day passes, the Detroit Lions become heavier favorites over the Carolina Panthers. At least that was true up until Friday’s injury report was released. Las Vegas had the line at double digits but has now moved back down to -9.5 in favor of the Lions, likely because of star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown being listed as “doubtful” for Sunday’s matchup.
Though the Panthers are having a disastrous start to the season, they’re a young team in rebuild mode and still have some nice pieces moving forward.
Today’s Question of the Day is...
Which player from the Panthers would you want most on the Lions?
Yesterday, our own Morgan Cannon highlighted Brian Burns as a player that the Lions should be most afraid of when dealing with the Panthers. While Burns would be a fantastic addition to the Lions’ defensive line, there is another player on the Panthers’ defensive line that is just as good—maybe even better—and would fit the Lions’ scheme like a glove at their biggest need. That player is defensive tackle Derrick Brown.
Brown was a name that was linked to the Lions prior to the 2020 NFL Draft. But with the Lions’ need at cornerback and Jeff Okudah being touted as a “can’t miss” prospect, they elected to pass on the top defensive tackle prospect in the draft. While the Okudah pick never really panned out, Brown has had plenty of success in Carolina and has emerged as one of the top interior linemen in the NFL (ranked seventh out of 142 qualifying IDLs via PFF).
Though he doesn’t tally up a ton of sacks (only seven sacks in a little over three years), Brown is quite disruptive as a pass rusher and would have led the Lions in interior pressures (40) by a comfortable margin last year. Brown’s bread and butter is definitely his run stuffing ability: in 2022, he finished with PFF’s third-highest run defense grade for interior defenders behind Dexter Lawrence and Chris Jones. Pretty good company.
Your turn. Scroll down to the comments and share your pick!
This post first appeared on Pride Of Detroit, A Detroit Lions Community, please read the originial post: here
