The Carolina Panthers have exercised their option for a fifth season on defensive tackle Derrick Brown’s rookie contract, the NFL team announced on Monday.

Brown joined the Panthers from Auburn as the seventh selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

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Every drafted player gets a four-year contract, and those for first-round draft choices carry a team option for a fifth season. Teams must exercise that option before the player’s fourth season. The deadline for using the option for players in the 2020 draft is 3 p.m. CDT Tuesday.

Brown’s rookie deal was worth $23.621 million, and the fifth-year option will pay him $11.665 million for the 2024 season and keep him from becoming a free agent after the 2023 campaign.

The fifth-year option payday is the average of the third through the 20th highest salaries for defensive tackles in the NFL over the past five seasons, a level of pay that Brown qualified for by playing more than half the Panthers’ defensive snaps in all three of his seasons.

Brown had his best season in 2022. He started every game and played a career-high 870 defensive snaps. Brown also reached career-best numbers with 67 tackles and seven pass knockdowns while recording his first interception.

Pro Football Focus graded Brown as the NFL’s 46th-best player last season.

Brown also was Carolina’s nominee for the 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.

Brown will switch positions in 2023 as the Panthers change from a base 4-3 defense to a 3-4 under new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. Brown will move from 4-3 defensive tackle to 3-4 defensive end.

Brown was a unanimous All-American selection at Auburn in 2019, when he won the Lott IMPACT Trophy.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.