Derrick Brown, Auburn Football News: Draft Scout Player News

04/25/20 - DT Derrick Brown, Sr/2020, Auburn

After Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney and coach Matt Rhule met with Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown at the Reese's Senior Bowl in January, they thought he would make some other NFL team very happy on April 23. "When walked out of the room, we just both shook our heads and said, 'Wow,'" Hurney said on Thursday night after the Panthers picked Brown with the seventh choice in the 85th NFL Draft. "I don't think either one of us thought at that point that we'd have the opportunity to get him." Rhule said: "When I left that meeting with him, I'm not going to say I was emotional, but I was, like, touched by who he was. His spirit comes through. And then you talk to the coaches, you talk to all the people at Auburn, and they can't talk enough about him."

What really got to Rhule was the way that Brown talked about Auburn defensive-line coach Rodney Garner. "He kept talking about his D-line coach and how much his D-line coach meant to him," Rhule said. "And I really believe that one of the ways -- people who are successful in life, they're usually very grateful people. They're appreciative of the people who have been in their lives or appreciative of the opportunities. They don't look at everything as negative; they look at it as positive. And when he talked about his defensive-line coach, here's a guy getting ready to make a bunch of money and he's talking about how much this man's impacted his life. I said, 'That must be a great defensive-line coach -- coach Garner.' Then at the same time, I also said, 'This is someone who really gets it.' It really kind of grabbed me." Brown could have been drafted last year, but he chose to return for his senior season. - Birmingham News

Sr/2020