Brian Burns is the other new showstopper at Giants training camp, the one not named Malik Nabers. He is The Predator pass rusher entering his prime hired to change the complexion of the Giants defense, and, if your Big Blue glass is half-full, remind you of the way it once was when Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck and of course Lawrence Taylor before them, made the Giants feared.
Jermaine Eluemunor played with Mad Maxx Crosby in Las Vegas.
“I say the same impact Maxx is making in Vegas right now just from a mentality standpoint and bring guys along with him, Burns can do the same thing here, which he is doing,” said Eluemunor, challenged with slowing Burns in training camp.
Eluemunor is asked to describe that mentality. “Dawg,” he said. “It may look like he’s a little tired, which I’ve learned, even if he looks tired, he’s still gonna go hard as hell on that rep. I’m used to that, going against Maxx, the man never gets tired.”
GM Joe Schoen never gets tired talking about the kind of impact Burns can make on Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence — and therefore on the back end of the Giants defense. It was Schoen who decided that a 26-year-old pass rusher like this deserves a $28.2M average annual salary at the expense of a running back, even one like Saquon Barkley.
Burns recorded 46 sacks with 95 quarterback hits in 67 career starts in Carolina, and you won’t find anyone around the Giants who thinks he will buckle under the weight of great expectations.
“He’s a prime-time player,” CB Nick McCloud told The Post. “He’s just so explosive. He got so much dawg in him.”
Burns has demonstrated the same leadership skills that linebacker Bobby Okereke did when he came to the Giants last season.
“The second day [of last week’s joint practices with] Detroit, we didn’t hold up our standard like we did the first day in terms of just being on top of our stuff being physical,” McCloud said, “and he just called the team up and he was like, ‘We can’t have these kinda days any more.’ ”
Daniel Jones won’t have to escape from Burns when he makes his preseason debut Saturday night in Houston.
“He can make a huge impact,” Jones told The Post. “Obviously he’s a tremendously talented player, just his pass rush ability and getting after the quarterback. He’s also a great leader and a good presence in the locker room for everybody … great dude.”
Pass rushers such as Burns are paid to prevent quarterbacks from having the time to throw deep to the likes of Nabers or to Jalin Hyatt.
“He brings a whole other level to that defense,” Hyatt told The Post. “I seen it in practice, 1-on-1s. He’s a freak. Freak of nature.”
Or to Darius Slayton.
“He’s definitely gonna be somebody that you’re gonna have to game plan for, make it easier for our other guys like Thibs and Dex and Nacho [Rakeem Nunez-Roches] and all the other D-linemen that are rushing, they’re gonna have chip Burns and double him and all that type of thing,” Slayton told The Post.
McCloud speaks for all the Giants defensive backs when he contemplates visions of bookends Burns and Thibodeaux — 11.5 sacks last season — meeting at the quarterback. The two of them have been two peas in a Giant pod.
“The sky’s the limit for what they can do together,” McCloud said. “K.T.’s just been progressing ever since I seen him his rookie year to now, like he’s progressing, progressing, progressing. So I’m definitely excited to see what they’re gonna do this year.”
At 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, Burns sure looks the part.
“He’s really frikkin’ fast around the edge,” Eluemunor said, “and he can bend the corner really well. For a tackle, especially a tackle like me, it makes me really have to hone in on him and make sure that every single rep I take and every single set is perfect. He makes you have to be perfect, like there’s no room for error when you’re going against him.”
McCloud has a message for Giants fans who have been mourning the disappearance of the elite pass rusher: “They’re coming, they’re coming. The ones we got up there now, they’re definitely getting after that quarterback, yeah.”
When Burns arrived, one of the first things he said was, “I’m ready to do great things.”
No one in and around 1925 Giants Drive doubts that he will.
