Thomas Brown’s newfound power had him feeling a bit risky on Tuesday.
The Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator and freshly-anointed play-caller spoke with reporters this afternoon, a day after officially receiving the keys to his unit from head coach Frank Reich. When asked about having the opportunity to grow alongside rookie quarterback Bryce Young in his expanded role, Brown revealed some inside info that he was admittedly reluctant to reveal.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to work with him,” he said. “Like I’ve said from Day One—even in my interview, which hopefully I’m good enough to be able to share this—but one of my last stops was kinda meeting with Scott [Fitterer] and Dan [Morgan] and kinda talk about how I saw the roster and also my evaluation of this draft class of quarterbacks.
“And I told Bryce this yesterday, when we had a sit-down meeting with us one on one and just talk about movin’ forward, my expectations and what to kinda expect from me in this kinda new role as a play-caller. But I mentioned him as being the No. 1 guy on the board then—just thinkin’ about from the standpoint of what I saw from him on tape and kinda just continuin’ to grow from there. And once you had the opportunity to get on the road and meet with him and interview him and, obviously, watchin’ him throw from a pro day standpoint.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise for a few reasons, one being that Brown had already expressed his desire to have a “point guard” heading his offense well before the draft. And no prospect from the spring fit that bill better than Young.
Unfortunately, the No. 1 overall pick hasn’t had the easiest time running the point in Carolina. So Brown is looking to build on his relationship with Young, who is showing signs of progress heading into the bye week.
“I’m in the quarterback room most times almost every single day,” he later added. “And when we got done with our meetings yesterday, I kinda just had some one-on-one time with him to just talk about what to expect from me to make sure we’re on the same page. But for me, more importantly, to get feedback from him for what he needs from me as far as moving forward, so we can do a really good job of working together and put a good product on the field.”
