The New York Giants have built an exciting defensive front featuring three premiere pass rushers. Chief among their acquisitions this offseason was edge specialist Brian Burns. The Giants traded a second-round pick to acquire Burns from the Panthers this offseason, and he could be the team’s X-Factor during the upcoming campaign.
Brian Burns could be the Giants’ X-Factor this season
Burns is a two-time Pro Bowl pass-rusher who established himself as one of the best in the league at his position during his five seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He’s racked up an impressive 46 career sacks and 59 tackles for loss.
Over the last four seasons, Burns’ 20.4% pass rush win rate ranks 14th in the league (h/t Giants.com). Pro Football Focus ranked Burns the No. 21 edge rusher in the NFL this offseason but has hope that he could move up the rankings this season in New York:
“Burns has yet to take that true next step into a near-elite category like his talent suggests he can, but 2023 marked the second-best pass-rush grade of his career (75.2) and the highest run-defense grade of his career (62.7),” Trevor Sikkema of PFF wrote. “Perhaps the key to unlocking his true talents was moving from Carolina to New York this offseason.”
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This season, Burns will be playing with far more talent around him than he has in the past. He will be joined by two other premier pass rushers in DT Dexter Lawrence and fellow EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux. Burns will be the X-Factor in the grouping, though, as his prominence as an edge rusher will create more opportunities for Thibodeaux and Lawrence to receive one-on-ones and dominate opposing offensive linemen.
The Giants signed Burns to a five-year, $141 million contract after acquiring him via trade this offseason. They made him one of the highest-paid defensive players in the NFL, in large part due to their belief that Burns has not yet hit his ceiling. He is still only 26 years old, an ascending talent with the potential to become a perennial double-digit sack artist.
This season, the Giants’ defense has some question marks in the secondary. If Burns and his fellow pass rushers can live up to the hype, they should be able to mask some of those deficiencies in the defensive backfield by forcing the ball out of the quarterbacks’ hands quickly and hopefully applying enough pressure to force quarterbacks into making mistakes.
