Panthers' Derrick Brown has potential season-ending knee injury

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The news went from bad to worse for the Carolina Panthers after Sunday's 47-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints when they discovered Pro Bowl defensive tackle Derrick Brown suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury.

Panthers coach Dave Canales said Monday that Brown will get a second opinion before deciding to have surgery to repair his meniscus.

"Definitely a huge loss,'' Canales said. "He's one of our best players. That's big shoes to fill. At the same time, we encourage [to whoever is playing] go in with great technique and just do your job. We don't need you to make the special plays that Derrick makes. Just do your job. That's the truth of it. If you play team football with a bunch of guys you can have success.''

It was unclear when Brown suffered the injury. He played 60 of Carolina's 66 snaps in its worst opening-day loss in team history and fourth-largest margin of defeat overall.

Canales said Brown "isn't really sure'' when the injury occurred. "It's a physical game,'' he said.

"When you play interior there's a lot of funky positions you get into," Canales said.

Brown was coming off a 2023 campaign in which his 103 tackles were the most for an NFL defensive lineman in a season.

Carolina rewarded the seventh pick of the 2020 draft with a four-year, $96 million extension earlier this year.

Brown was Carolina's best defensive player and arguably the best player on the team. Although he has never had more than three sacks in a season, Canales challenged him to have eight to 10 in 2024, something Brown felt was attainable.

Brown, 26, played 89.1% of Carolina's defensive snaps in 2023. That was second only to linebacker Frankie Luvu and impressive for a man of his size (6-foot-5, 320 pounds) in a 3-4 scheme in which there is a set rotation.

Among the candidates to replace Brown will be second-year player LaBryan Ray, but it's likely general manager Dan Morgan will have to add one or more players at the position that already was thin.