{"id":235751,"date":"2025-07-25T19:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/235751\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T19:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:30:12","slug":"panthers-derrick-brown-receives-full-clearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/235751\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers’ Derrick Brown Receives Full Clearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May,\u00a0Derrick Brown<\/a>\u00a0expressed a desire to be back at full strength by the start of the regular season<\/a>. The Panthers Pro Bowler has indeed been cleared well before that point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>General manager\u00a0Dan Morgan\u00a0said at the outset of training camp this week (via Joe Person of The Athletic<\/a>) that Brown has the green light to practice in full. To no surprise, he added the team will take a cautious approach in this case. Bringing Brown back up to speed will be key as he looks to move past a 2024 campaign which essentially ended before it began.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Recapping Panthers\u2019 2025 Offseason]<\/a><\/p>\n

The former No. 7 pick suffered a meniscus tear in Week 1 and required season-ending surgery as a result. Brown\u2019s rehab progressed to the point where a return in time for training camp<\/a> emerged as the target. Brown\u2019s injury gutted Carolina\u2019s front seven last season. Trading Brian Burns<\/a> (and not doing much to replace him), the Panthers lost Brown after a handful of plays last season. These developments led to the team dropping to 32nd in points and yardage allowed.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s injury came after the Panthers gave him a four-year, $96MM extension. The team has since added two more notable defensive line contracts, signing Tershawn Wharton<\/a> and Bobby Brown<\/a> in free agency. The former Chiefs and Rams performers, respectively, profile as D-line aid after the unit\u2019s 2024 freefall. But the free agency additions also will likely need Brown operating as O-lines\u2019 top concern to realize their potential in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Avoiding the active\/PUP list after the previous timetable pointed to a longer onramp represents a positive sign for Derrick Brown<\/a>, who had missed one game over his first four seasons. That attendance rate helped the Panthers feel comfortable extending the Matt Rhule-era draftee. With the team still transitioning from Burns \u2014 as second- and third-round rookies (Nic Scourton<\/a>, Princely Umanmielen<\/a>) are being groomed to man the OLB spots, with ex-Vikings D.J. Wonnum<\/a> and Patrick Jones<\/a> as veteran placeholders \u2014 Brown reemerging as an impact player will provide a vital boost to the Panthers\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

Sam Robinson contributed to this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In May,\u00a0Derrick Brown\u00a0expressed a desire to be back at full strength by the start of the regular season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,11404,7,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-235751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-derrick-brown","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114915536133749383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}