Brian Burns Says This is Key in Navigating Through Giants Coaching Change

New York Giants outside linebacker Brian Burns has been down this road before.

The road in question is an in-season head coaching change, something Burns went through in Carolina when the Panthers fired Matt Rhule in-season.

But as unpleasant as the experience was, Burns, one of the defensive leaders, says there is only one thing he and his teammates can do in the face of such an unplanned change.

“The goal is still to go out there Sunday and play our best, win the game,” he said Wednesday while sitting in front of his locker.

Not that it will be easy, given the circumstances.

“It's tough,” he admitted. “You develop a relationship with somebody. You get to learn what they want and how they do things, and they get to learn you as well. It's tough. It's like a breakup.”

The good news, if anyone wants to call it that, is that for Burns and his defensive teammates, who are about to get to know interim head coach Mike Kafka, formerly the team’s offensive coordinator, is that defensively, they still have Shane Bowen in place.

But Burns added that doesn’t mean things will necessarily stay the same for the defense, though the degree to which remains to be seen.

“I think it depends on (Kafka’s) expertise,” he said. “When I went through the coaching change with (former Panthers head coach) Matt Rhule, (former Panthers interim head coach Steve) Wilks kind of took over our defense, but that's what he does. So, I don't know if he'll make any tweaks. We'll know the more we game plan for the Packers.”

Kafka, for his part, has already met several times with Bowen, who has also come under fire, given the four road-game collapses his defense has been a part of this season. A focus of those meetings, according to Kafka, was to clean up the communication issues that had dragged down the defense.

“I'm not, up until this point, haven't been privileged to those conversations,” Kafka said of the defensive side of the ball, “so getting caught up to speed and communicating what I like and what I like to see and then them going and doing it.”

Burns believes that no matter which side of the ball a player is on, the key to navigating change is to be professional and stay locked in to what’s being asked.

“I hope the guys would stick together, come together, come even closer,” Burns said of his message to his teammates.

“I kind of just told them that in situations like this, everybody's under evaluation. Even though this is happening, nobody's going to turn on the film and be like, ‘Oh, this was after Daboll got fired, that's why he's playing this way.’ Nobody cares.

“So, I just told them, if there was ever a time to play your best ball, if there was ever a time to bond together, stick together, it’s now.”

Burns said that there were times in the past when teammates, following a head coaching change, mailed it in. As one of the defensive captains, he spoke of not allowing that to happen in the Giants' locker room.

“I'm just going to kind of lead by example, lead from the front, just call guys up to the stand and pull guys along with me,” he said. “Because like I said, I've been through this. I know how it should look and how it should go.”

The hope is that the Giants at least double their 2025 win total and finish on a strong note.

But can it?

“It's happened before,” Burns said. “But I don't know. It's all in how the team responds. I think that's the main thing. I don't think it's necessarily the coaching change that makes something work. It's just how the team responds.”

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