Film Room: Deonte Brown Has a Chance To Start in 2021 | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of The Riot Report. The author of this post is Vincent Richardson.

    While there has been a lot on focus on the Panthers' left tackle spot, and rightly so, the interior of the Panthers' offensive line is far from a stable entity either. While Matt Paradis returns as center, both guard spots are likely to be open competitions in training camp, with one player who should be part of the competition at both spots is the Panthers' first of three picks in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft: Deonte Brown.

    Brown certainly makes a big first impression, in that he is a very, very large man. He weighed in at 6'4 and 364lbs at the Senior Bowl, and while he was down to around 347lbs by the time he reported for rookie minicamp a little over a week ago, watching him on tape over the past two seasons it is fairly clear that he played much heavier in 2020 than in 2019, and the effect on his game was not a positive one. It should come as little surprise then that getting his weight under control is a priority for the Panthers' coaching staff.

    "I don't think he's going to ever be a 310-pound guy, that's just not who he is, he's a big powerful man" acknowledged Matt Rhule when speaking to the media during rookie minicamp, "We'll take all that data over the course of this weekend in terms of how he moves then what's his body fat percentage, what's his power structure, we'll put all that together and we'll come up with an ideal weight for him. I would love it if he was in the 330s, but he might be a 340-pound guy."

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    Read the full article HERE on The Riot Report.