Brian Burns gave the Giants exactly what they paid for in 2025, and then some.
The veteran edge rusher closed the season with 16.5 sacks, good for second in the NFL behind Myles Garrett, and earned second-team All-Pro honors in the process. For a player acquired from Carolina in a blockbuster 2024 trade and then signed to a five-year, $141 million extension, it was the kind of year that made the price tag feel justified. Burns now opens training camp on July 28 as the centerpiece of what could be the deepest edge group in football.
What makes this room tricky is that Burns isn’t the only one who deserves to be on the field.
Rookie Abdul Carter piled up 66 total pressures while finishing with just 4 sacks, a split that suggests the production could jump in a hurry. Kayvon Thibodeaux, meanwhile, had 2.5 sacks in 10 games before a shoulder injury sent him to injured reserve, but still logged 32 pressures on 494 snaps. Between the three of them, they were on the field for 2,201 of the Giants’ 2,465 defensive snaps.
Burns was the finisher in the group, but the numbers show he wasn’t the only disruptive force. He started all 17 games, posted 22 tackles for loss, and delivered the most complete season of his seven-year career. PFF gave him a 75.8 overall grade, 25th among 115 qualified edge defenders, along with a 71.5 pass-rush grade built on 53 total pressures.
The Giants also made a financial move this offseason that underscored how central Burns is to their plans. Per Spotrac, they converted $22.75 million of his 2026 base salary into a signing bonus, lowering his cap hit to $21.38 million.
That’s the backdrop for Dennard Wilson’s biggest early challenge: figuring out how to divide snaps among three edge defenders who all have a case for starter-level work. Burns led the trio in snaps last season, Carter had earned a full-time role by December, and Thibodeaux is back healthy on a fully guaranteed $14.751 million fifth-year option that ensures he plays.
The simplest answer may be the one Wilson used at times with the Tennessee Titans: move Burns or Carter inside on passing downs and keep the pressure coming from different angles. However it shakes out, the Giants have a room that can overwhelm opponents if the sacks start matching the pressure.
That matters because New York finished 2025 with only 39 sacks, which ranked 17th in the league, despite all that disruption. If Carter turns even a third of those pressures into sacks, the Giants could take a real step toward a top-10 pass rush without bringing in anyone else.
For a team leaning on its front to help cover a secondary full of questions, Burns is the player who makes the whole plan believable. The Giants built this defense to win up front, and he’s the one who has to turn that idea into something real.
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Giants Still Have One Offensive Line Problem Fans Cant Ignore
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Schmitz has looked more comfortable in zone concepts than in schemes that ask him to move and adjust on the fly, and last seasons protection issues only sharpened the concern. He enters the final year of his rookie deal with a chance to change the conversation, but also with the kind of pressure that can turn every snap into a referendum on whether the Giants have found their long-term answer at center. [Read more 🡒]