Brian Burns’ epiphany should benefit Carolina Panthers’ pass rush, worry opponents
As good as Brian Burns has been — and he’s already the Carolina Panthers’ best pass rusher at age 22 — he knows he can be even better.
Officially, Burns leads the Panthers in sacks, pressures and forced fumbles. Unofficially, he also leads the team in “almost-sacks” — those plays where you’d swear that No. 53 is within an inch of the quarterback, but then the pass gets thrown anyway.
Still, Burns said in our one-on-one interview Thursday: “A lot of things are starting to click for me. Not just in sack production, but in becoming a more complete player.”
Burns said he has had an epiphany of sorts in the past month.
“Over the last few weeks, I have re-evaluated myself,” Burns said. “I asked myself whether I was playing to my fullest potential. And I didn’t feel like I was.”
The results have been obvious. Of the Panthers’ most recent two games, defensive coordinator Phil Snow said of Burns: “He’s playing a lot harder…. which I’m excited about.”
As the Panthers prepare to play at New Orleans Sunday, Snow said he believes Burn is poised to make a leap.
Said Snow: “I think we’re going to see a big change in productivity over the next five or six games with Brian…. I think he’s coming into his own.”
I do, too. Burns, to me, is one of the Panthers’ most dazzling players and a candidate to become a breakout star. The Panthers need him to be one. Along with a 2020 draft class headlined by defensive tackle Derrick Brown and safety Jeremy Chinn, Burns is part of a core of young players the Panthers need to build the next generation of this defense around.
The Panthers’ first-round draft pick in 2019 out of Florida State, Burns is capable of the sort of explosive play that makes NFL rushers millions of dollars. He’s only had two sacks in six games in 2020, but both of them were strip-sacks. Pro Football Focus ranks Burns No. 7 in the NFL out of 110 edge defenders so far in 2020 for his overall performance, ahead of such well-known defensive ends as J.J. Watt, Joey Bosa and Cameron Jordan.
Last season as a rookie, Burns scored on a 56-yard fumble return and also had 7.5 sacks, even though for a lot of the season he was basically playing one-handed due to a serious wrist injury. He’s a Pro Bowl talent, if he can put it all together.
A scary collision
The new Panthers’ coaching staff likes Burns. He played 43.3 percent of Carolina’s defensive snaps as a rookie when the Panthers had a line more dominated by veterans. He’s played 70.5 percent of the defensive snaps in 2020. Still, Snow has been coaching Burns hard, trying to wring the most out of one of the Panthers’ most talented players.
Burns’ epiphany, he said, was partly due to Snow’s prompting.
“Before that Atlanta game (Oct. 11),” Burns said of Snow, “he kind of brought it to my attention. Kind of challenged me. He wanted me to play harder, to be around the ball more…. Because if the ball was on the other side of the field, I was sometimes picking and choosing when I wanted to chase after it.”
This is hardly uncommon for defensive ends, if we’re being honest. Julius Peppers, for one, used to be criticized for the same thing occasionally. And it does make some sense to pick your spots. If the play is 30 yards away, and sprinting toward a tackle that is already going to be made is going to get you winded for your next pass rush 30 seconds later, where should you put that energy?
Still, Burns said, he realized he needed to fly around more. And that’s what he felt like he was doing against Atlanta, where he caused a 17-yard sack-fumble loss by Atlanta’s Matt Ryan in the second quarter. But on the very next play, as Burns successfully chased down a Falcons screen, he was involved in a scary collision with several players. Burns stayed on the ground for about a minute, face-down.
“I got knocked out,” Burns said, “although I heard everything that was going on. I remember Shaq (Thompson_) talking to me, and who I had been chasing. My memory was there.”
Burns walked off under his own power. He entered the concussion protocol but was cleared to play last week against Chicago — when he had three quarterback hits but no sacks in Carolina’s 23-16 loss.
Sack tips from his brother
Burns’ older brother, Stanley McClover, was a seventh-round draft pick of the Panthers in 2006 and played two seasons for the team as a reserve defensive end. Long before Snow trying to wring the most out of Burns, there was McClover training him relentlessly. McClover still texts Burns at halftime of nearly every game to offer him tips on his pass rush based on what he saw in the first half, Burns said.
Is there an example of something McClover has told him that paid off?
Said Burns: “A sack I got last year on Drew Brees — that was because of Stanley. He texted me at halftime to get back to what I’m good at and to go with my signature chop (a pass-rushing move). It worked.”
Burns would love to get Brees again Sunday in New Orleans and then celebrate with a Spider-man pose, as he does for all his sacks. But he knows that the Saints’ star quarterback is legendary for throwing quickly.
“It’s hard to get Brees, honestly,” Burns said. “He gets rid of the ball very fast. And he’s not the tallest guy either. If you’re trying to get past a 6-foot-6 offensive tackle and he’s closer to six feet, once he moves, it’s pretty difficult to see him.”
Still, Burns is determined to try, and to start converting those almost-sacks into sacks. One from earlier this season sticks in his craw in particular — a play where he believes he should have had Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray.
“I was closing in on Murray, and it would have been a sack if I had just reached for the ball and knocked it out,” Burns said. “Instead I went for the hit, and he got the ball out and even completed it. It’s such a game of inches.”
Burns continues to close the gap, though.
Watch him for these next 5-6 games, as Snow suggests. Because Burns looks a little like a rocket, about to take off.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Brian Burns’ epiphany should benefit Carolina Panthers’ pass rush, worry opponents."
