The good news for Brown, and the defense as a whole, is that they brought friends in to support him.
By investing in Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown III this offseason, they've added depth to the position, so that he might not have to play every single rep.
Canales said they'd "play it by ear" when the season started, but he also knows how persuasive Brown can be. He's also earned those reps by being one of the league's dominant defensive tackles, setting a single-season record for tackles by a lineman in 2023, en route to his first Pro Bowl.
He's a great player, so we'd love to have him out there the whole time," Canales said. "We'll see how he responds as we continue to push his volume, and then we'll have to kind of just make that decision week to week in terms of how much he plays and how we're rotating that group.
"But it is a deep group and we love all those guys, there's veteran guys, there's young guys that can help as well, so we'll kind of see as we go."
Brown said he hoped they'd reach a point where he could push past some limits, if it meant they were in close games late and needed him. And even with all the new help, they're going to have to have a good reason for him not to be there.
"I always want to be on the field, though," he said with another laugh. "That's how you hang around for a little while in the league. So I always want to be on the field, but it's going to be up to the coaches.
"I think there's a plan in place right now, so I'll play as much as I can. Hopefully it's a three-quarter plan and if the game's on line in the fourth quarter to kind of let me burn up a little bit, so we'll see."