2020 NFL Draft: Derrick Brown's red flags are hard to ignore

So you just drafted Auburn defensive tackle, Derrick Brown. Congratulations! You've got a fantastic all-around defensive tackle.

That could mean a lot of different things at the next level. But with Brown, it's important to set expectations of exactly what you'll be getting in the NFL. While he's universally placed in the “can't miss” tier of prospects in this draft class, that doesn't mean Brown is going to have an Aaron Donald-like (or even Chris Jones-like) impact anytime soon. While a number of reasons point to Brown having a high floor in the NFL, there's also plenty of reason to be skeptical about whether he can ever reach the elite tier of defensive tackles.

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His grading is the very first sort of red flag that suggests that Brown may not be as elite as many are making him out to be. His 90.8 overall grade this past season wasn't even tops in his own conference (Missouri's Jordan Elliott, 92.4), let alone one of the best we've seen in the PFF era. In fact, Brown's career-high grade from this past season ranks only 14th in terms of the highest-graded seasons we've seen from a Power-5 defensive tackle.