Carolina Panthers’ rising star play-caller never wanted to coach

At various points throughout his playing career, Thomas Brown had to resort to a similar refrain when talking to his insistent and loving father.

“Dad,” Brown would say, “there’s no way in the world I’m ever going to become a coach.”

“When I’m done playing,” he’d continue, “I’m going to do something other than football.”

Brown said this Tuesday morning in the bowels of Bank of America Stadium, a day after he was handed the keys as play-caller of the Carolina Panthers. The 37-year-old offensive coordinator is considered a rising star in the NFL coaching ranks. He’s won a Super Bowl. He has rave reviews from respected head coach Sean McVay and practically everyone he’s worked with. He even was interviewed this offseason for the job of head coach of the Houston Texans — the team he will face in his NFL play-calling debut Oct. 29 in Charlotte.

But while he was playing, it was different. Forgive him if he sounded naive then. In fact, the once-decorated running back at the University of Georgia and sixth-round NFL Draft pick even doubled-down on his plan to leave football and enter the world of finance after his playing days ended in 2011.

But something brought him back.

“One day, I just thought about things I never got that I wanted as a player, that I wanted to give back and share from this standpoint on the other side of it,” Brown said. The result was a 15-page proposal he and a few teammates created for a program that helped players transition after the “phones stop ringing” and “fans disappear” — that helped players “truly be prepared for life outside of football,” a struggle he knew first hand.

The proposal wasn’t implemented. But it bore fruit.

He saw what coaching was like in the weight room in Georgia in 2011 and has ascended quickly from there.

“That was a long-winded answer to your short question,” Brown told a reporter in Tuesday’s press conference, chuckling a bit. “But that’s where it started.”

Thomas Brown’s long career before stop at Carolina Panthers

To download all of Brown’s stops ahead of the one he has now is a long exercise. A few highlights: His first time calling plays in high-level football was as the Miami Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator from 2016-18. His first gig in the NFL came with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020 as running backs coach. And he was part of a 2021 Rams offense that ranked seventh in the NFL in points scored in the team’s special Super Bowl season.

At every stop, he was known for bringing a unique energy on the sideline.

“I’ve calmed down a lot,” Brown said. “I used to run around a whole lot more. I used to be at practice, racing players. Age kinda catches up with you. I pulled a couple hamstrings, popped an Achilles. So (I figured) it’s probably best that I slow myself down.”

But his career didn’t slow. In 2023, with a regime change afoot in Carolina, head coach Frank Reich interviewed Brown to potentially be his offensive coordinator. The two didn’t know each other previously, but Reich hired Brown nonetheless — a rarity in a league that so often exemplifies the “it’s who you know” mantra.

Brown’s hire made him one of three Black offensive coordinators in the NFL.

“It’s a rare opportunity, for a number of different reasons, which I won’t dive into my thought process on the reason why right now,” Brown said of being Black and a play-caller in the NFL. “But I do understand I have an opportunity to help us have success from a Panthers standpoint, but also open up doors for more guys who look like myself as well in the future.”

Reich, an established play-caller in the NFL, said in the spring when he was hired that he planned to eventually relinquish play-calling duties to Brown.

And on Monday, in an early morning meeting, Reich did.

“This was 100% my decision,” Reich said on Monday, clearing the air on if the 0-6 start or owner David Tepper had anything to do with the hand-off. Reich added, “Part of my job as the head coach is coaching the coaches and helping develop the coaches, and whatever small role I can play in helping Thomas take that step and become a great coordinator and play caller, I look forward to that.”

What will be different in a Thomas Brown gameday offense?

Discerning how exactly this offense will look differently on game day is a difficult task. Brown’s day-to-day duties won’t change, he said. He’ll still be leading offensive team meetings and will spend a lot of time with rookie quarterback Bryce Young, with whom he’s built a great rapport.

It’s conceivable the team will run more. It’s also possible the Panthers will play less no-huddle, an offensive strategy Reich sat at the forefront of in many ways.

Beyond that, Brown said, he hopes to “build on the positives” the Panthers have laid so far this season. Carolina is 23rd in points per game and in total yards through six weeks, but the team has shown flashes in the past few games. Most impressive among them was the first quarter against the Dolphins, where the team jumped out to a 14-0 lead, capped off by a touchdown catch by veteran receiver Adam Thielen, who’s having a career year.

“This was always part of the plan,” Young told reporters of Brown’s elevated role on Monday. “This was something that Coach Reich had talked about since before the season. So again, we didn’t know a timeline. And that’s above my pay grade as far as what went into it. …

“Just being able to see how he views the game, how he sees the game, how he calls stuff, how he scripts — we’re always bouncing ideas off (each other) to see how he feels about things. So again, the decision part is above my pay grade, but the decision part, knowing what it is moving forward, it’s really exciting.”

Panthers players expressed their excitement for Brown on Monday. So did Reich. But with any new opportunity comes risk. One line of questioning that was posed to Brown on Monday: Is it ideal that this opportunity, however excellent it is, arrives with a team that is struggling offensively? Are you worried about how this could affect your future in the NFL?

Brown acknowledged the sentiment.

And then, just like he did when discussing how he got into coaching at all, he talked about his parents. Both came from humble beginnings; his father, Thomas Louis Brown Sr., was a pastor, and his mother, Louise Brown, was a social studies teacher.

“I’ve never lived that way,” Brown said. “There’s no reward without the risk. That kind of comes with this profession. Like I said, I was built and raised that way. I was raised by fighters. …

“The older I get, I think about it this way: Fear and failure only exist in the future. It’s easy (to succumb) to fears of ‘what if’ or ‘what could go wrong.’ But also, I have that mindset of that productive approach — of having faith in our process and myself.”

The Panthers share that faith, too.