Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence Touted for Elite Skills in New Analysis

There hasn’t been much to celebrate in the New York Giants' 100th season in existence. Despite having one of the league’s most beleaguered rosters this season, the Giants have had a few positive developments, such as the play of All-Pro defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and outside linebacker Brian Burns.

The duo has been known for doing more than just being the pressure cookers of the team’s unit. They were both recently mentioned on ESPN’s list of the best position players at 102 different skills across the NFL, with Lawrence gaining two areas and Burns taking hold of one.

Despite his season-ending elbow injury, Lawrence is still believed to be in contention for the best interior defensive lineman in the league. He earned two nods for the “most physical DL” and “best run-stopper” categories.

It seems like every week, the Giants' opposing offensive linemen discuss these characteristics when preparing to face the 340-pound bull rusher, and it’s led to him easily topping out in the outlet’s mind.

“Lawrence uses his massive frame and strength at 6-foot-4 and 340 pounds to control the interior of the front,” ESPN’s Matt Bowen said. “He demands double-teams in the run game, and his nine sacks are the most for a defensive tackle.”

Lawrence has been a complete interior force no matter what team he has sparred with in 2024. He makes it extremely difficult for the protection to hold up in the middle, often pushing it backward into the action or sparking the rest of the defensive front to feast from the edges in the first half of the season.

In 12 games played this season, Lawrence ranks 12th among interior defensive linemen in overall pass-rushing productivity with a 7.4 percentage. More of that success has come from lining up on the left side, where that number increases to 8.7 percent, leading the entire position for the Giants.

Lawrence has racked up over 330 pass-rushing snaps this fall and has turned them into 36 total pressures, including four games with at least five pressures to his name and 18 in the first three weeks of the season. He still leads the Giants with a career-high 9.0 sacks and, at one point earlier in the season, was among the top three sack leaders in the league.

Against the run, he has been an even bigger problem to handle given his immense size that can close down rushing lanes and swallow up ball carriers that escape to an alternate route.

It’s the main reason why he has demanded so many double teams–a number that once reached 63.3% of his rushes–yet he has still managed to dominate the extra blocks at a 32 percent clip and compile many tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

Burns, whom the Giants acquired last offseason from the Panthers in a trade and signed to a lucrative five-year, $141 million contract, joined his fellow teammate in the “best bend/flex” department, getting lauded heavily for his fluid lower body movements off of the snap that allows him to get the quarterback faster and make the most of his pass rushing chances.

The most iconic of these has become the signature spin move that Burns likes to deploy on opposing offensive linemen who don’t carry the same side-to-side athleticism. With this skill, Burns has been the third most efficient pressure guy on the Giants defense behind Lawrence and Azeez Ojulari, notching a 7.4 percent pass rush productivity for six sacks and 42 total pressures.

Burns’s damage has come from the right side of the line, with four of his sacks and 25 total pressures amounting to a team-high 9.7 percent productivity rate on that side. He also has five games with at least five pressures and eight with at least three tackles, including his 10 takedowns for loss, which are the best on the team.

Still, the highly-paid edge rusher hasn't had his greatest campaign to match his pay. Burns has earned zero sacks in three of his past four starts after getting at least one in four of the previous five, and his quarterback hits sit at just two in the same span.

This is the same player who came from Carolina with three seasons of at least 51 pressures and four with over nine sacks to his resume. The only solace is that the Giants have faced some of the better-blocking units in football over the past month, and even then, he’s still holding the fourth-best pass rush win rate of 23 percent in his position.

With this duo of players set to return in 2025 at full strength, the Giants can at least know there is an in-depth analysis that shows their guys are some of the best at keeping the fundamentals strong.

If anything, it’s the basis for succeeding on the NFL gridiron week in and week out, and the more important areas of talent and production off of that will have to be developed this offseason in pursuit of the more common end-of-season accolades.

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