CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Carolina Panthers will be without Pro Bowl defensive lineman Derrick Brown the rest of the season.
Brown was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday after a second opinion made it clear he needed surgery to repair a meniscus injury suffered in Sunday's 47-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Coach Dave Canales said on Monday that Brown, who played 60 of 66 snaps, was unaware of when the injury occurred in what was the largest opening-day loss in team history.
"Definitely a huge loss,'' Canales said of Brown's injury. "He's one of our best players. That's big shoes to fill. But at the same time we've got players in there. I want them to know and be encouraged that if you go in, play with great technique and just do your job, we don't need you to make the special plays that Derrick makes.''
Brown was coming off a 2023 campaign in which his 103 tackles were the most ever for an NFL defensive lineman in a season. Carolina rewarded the seventh pick of the 2020 draft with a four-year, $96 million extension.
Canales challenged Brown before this season to have eight to 10 sacks even though he'd had no more than three in a season.
But replacing Brown, 26, won't be easy. He played 89.1% of Carolina's defensive snaps in 2023 and accounted for 12.4% of the team's tackles. His playing time 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, Nick Thurman and Jayden Peevy. General manager Dan Morgan also could add one or more players at the position that already was thin on depth.
The Panthers already have made a move to help the pass rush that produced only one sack against New Orleans. A league source confirmed to ESPN that Carolina plans to sign outside linebacker Charles Harris, 29.
Harris had a career-best 7.5 sacks in 2021 playing in Detroit's 3-4 scheme under Carolina defensive line coach Todd Wash. The 22nd pick of the 2017 draft by the Miami Dolphins also had 36 hurries, 16 quarterback hits and 2 forced fumbles in 2021 with Wash.
But neither Harris, nor anybody else on the roster, can replace what Brown does on and off the field.
"It's the work ethic of guys like Derrick Brown, you know, our best players happen to be our hardest workers,'' Canales said before the season. "And so it doesn't leave a lot of space for the rest of the group to kind of pick and choose what they're going to do. They've just got to go; they've got to go hard, they've got to work at it, the individual drills and all that stuff.''