Brian Burns Talks Giants' 2025 Season, Rookie Class on "The Pivot" Podcast

New York Giants outside linebacker Brian Burns is a player who has become accustomed to success on the individual level but has dealt with quite a different story for the two franchises he has represented in the NFL.

Burns started in Carolina, where he was drafted No. 16 overall and instantly became one of the team's main faces thanks to his unique speed and flexibility as a pass rusher, which helped him reel in 46 total sacks and eight forced turnovers in his first five seasons.

Those contributions on the field weren’t close to enough to wash out the stench that had permeated the rest of the Panthers organization during that time. Losing records and coaching turnover were like an annual tradition that eventually forced him to seek refuge in another city.

Burns then came to New York before the 2024 season, when Giants general manager Joe Schoen traded a haul to the Panthers to acquire the All-Pro edge rusher as a headliner for the defensive front, and the move surely worked on that same front within the first two seasons in East Rutherford.

While Burns has racked up 25 sacks and five forced turnovers in 34 games for the Giants, the rest of the organization hasn’t been able to flip the script of mediocrity.

The Giants have won seven combined games in his time in blue, partially due to the fault of their defense, and are now in the midst of another big coaching search to try to turn things around.

For a team that went 4-13 and put up some of the ugliest numbers in the league, as the Giants did, some would say they need much more than simply adding one or two new figures that can command the locker room to success.

Not to Burns, who, during an appearance on The Pivot podcast this week, said he believes the talent foundation isn’t the issue and that things will begin to fall into place for the Giants once they find the right collection of voices, spearheaded by the new head coach.

“I think it’s within the locker room,” Burns said about what the Giants need to happen to return to being a playoff team again.

“Getting some older guys in there for some leadership…obviously the season didn’t go how he wanted it to, but the leadership that we did have in the locker room was great.”

“From [Russell Wilson], to Jameis [Winston], myself, Bobby Okereke, Dexter Lawrence, there was leadership throughout. Now, once you get the guy, or whoever they deem to be the guy, and they follow what we’re trying to implement from this season, then I feel like everything will get rolling from there.”

The Giants’ brass has already kicked off the offseason in full pursuit of that true leader of men, a search that has quickly centered around a couple of intriguing candidates, none more notable than former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, whom many view as the perfect face for getting the franchise back to competency.

It felt as if the Giants were heading in that direction in the first year of the Brian Daboll head coaching era in 2022, when the team won a surprising nine games and notched its first postseason berth in six seasons with a victory in the Wild Card round against the Vikings.

The good vibes around Daboll turned sour over the following three seasons as the Giants’ record plummeted to just two wins through the first 10 games of 2025, and many of their losses came on brutal fourth-quarter collapses that raised questions about the coaching staff putting the team’s collection of young talent in proper positions to succeed every Sunday.

Oct 26, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

As soon as the switch was made to interim head coach Mike Kafka and defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen, who replaced the dismissed Shane Bowen, it was those same players who were playing competitive football games down the stretch and creating hope for the future team that the Giants could be once they reach their best level of play.

At the forefront were the major rookies on the roster, including quarterback Jaxson Dart and fellow outside linebacker Abdul Carter, who both rose to the occasion and turned their unique skillsets into debut resumes worthy of Rookie of the Year conversations.

Dart impressed with his dual-threat abilities, totaling 2,272 passing yards and 24 total touchdowns, which ranked among the best among first-year arms and delivered the assurance that the Giants finally have their long-term signal caller. Carter found his groove late in the year and turned that into the most pressures (66) and the second-most sacks (4) on the defense.

Even off the gridiron, it was their impact on fueling the team’s attitude and chemistry that budded fast and caught the eyes of the veterans like Burns, who saw Dart bring that strange style of confidence and fearlessness that usually stays under wraps for a while until one’s play does the real talking for them.

“Confidence,” Burns chose as the one word to describe his impression of the rookie gunslinger.

“I saw that firsthand in training camp when obviously he was with the second or third [quarterback], and we were getting reps against him. I’m running him down…and he’ll tell you he made it to the endzone, but he’s just barking at me as if he wants some smoke and I’m like ‘you just got here’.”

“Him, Abdul [Carter], and [Cam Skattebo] are all kind of like-minded, so they just came in running their mouths, and it’s a little different. This wasn’t how other rookies came in or how I came in.”

“Dart just had this confidence out of the jump, and he let it exude over the rest of the team. He’s a very talented and electric player, and I think that got the rest of us hype.”

What seemed like a draft-night reach by the Giants is, almost a year later, one of the main reasons the entire team stayed bought in till the final whistle of a largely disastrous season, and those on the outside truly believe that New York can accomplish its turnaround and make the playoffs in 2026.

Along with his physical talents, it’s that championship or bust mentality that developed early on for Dart and company that has been missing, and usually comes from having the right leadership in the locker room to inspire that out of the next generation who will carry the torch of sustained success into the future.

The Giants will walk into next year knowing they can capitalize on their talent if they just land the right face who reciprocates their goals from top to bottom.

The hope is that the foundation Burns sees in his current team can entice the best coach on the market to come and resurrect true Giants football with this group, which feels they left something more on the table.

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