{"id":331793,"date":"2025-08-31T22:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331793\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:23:10","slug":"giants-brian-burns-ready-to-build-on-challenge-of-captaincy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/331793\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants’ Brian Burns ready to build on challenge of captaincy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Burns<\/a> was speaking to reporters after he was named one of the Giants\u2019 five captains last Thursday. A few teammates yelled nearby as they walked into the shower.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me, fellas! I appreciate you,\u201d Burns responded to quiet them. They apologized and told Burns to finish his interview. He laughed as he continued his answer.<\/p>\n

The tone was in jest but it showed the respect Burns carried in the locker room. He\u2019s not just more comfortable in his second year, the linebacker admired for his off-field approach as much as his on-field production.<\/p>\n

It was evident when coach Brian Daboll showed the team clips of Burns\u2019 practice reps during training camp. Daboll used it as an example of the standard he wants for this year\u2019s team<\/a> to be tougher, more hard-nosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d say that Brian has really exemplified what we’re trying to do here throughout starting back in April,\u201d Daboll said on Aug. 14. \u201cThe way he practices, the way he approaches things, I’ve been very pleased with Burns. He’s given us good reason to be very pleased with the way he does things day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns was already held in high esteem after his first season. He was one of two Giants along with Greg Van Roten to start every game. He led the Giants with 17 tackles for loss and was second with 8.5 sacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the season, he was revered as if he was a captain with injuries decimating the roster. Teammates praised how hard he played with while fans focused on landing a high draft pick as the losses piled up.<\/p>\n

All of that made him appreciate his fellow Giants voting him a captain with Russell Wilson, Bobby Okereke, Darius Slayton and Dexter Lawrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t take it for granted. I was a captain for three years in Carolina,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect to be a captain in my first year here, last year. I don\u2019t take it for granted to have that \u2018C\u2019 on my chest to represent my teammates, to represent this organization and my coaches and everybody. It means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra responsibility also comes with more expectations in the second year of a five-year, $141-million contract. While Burns had a fine season, it didn\u2019t match his performance from 2020-22 with the Panthers. During that stretch, he had no fewer than nine sacks each season, including a career-high 12.5 sacks and 22 quarterback hits.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s why he\u2019s raised his level of focus. In the joint practices with the Jets, he was a one-man force causing havoc against the offensive line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve watched a ton of film and identified those areas (to improve) and tried our best to identify a road map to him having the best season he\u2019s had yet,\u201d outside linebackers coach Charlie Bullen said. \u201cHe\u2019s just completely embraced it. For him in year seven, after having gotten paid, just watching him approaching it, it\u2019s one of the coolest things I\u2019ve seen from a player in an offseason since I\u2019ve been around this league.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another reason Burns earned the \u201cC\u201d on his jersey. Now it\u2019s just translating it to action. While the Giants will focus more this week on the Commanders ahead of Sunday\u2019s season opener, Burns is already expecting a different Jayden Daniels than the quarterback who won Offensive Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect him to be better than he was last year and that\u2019s saying a lot because that young man has a true talent,\u201d Burns said of Daniels. “He picked up the game, the game slowed down for him really fast. I expect him to be great, so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same could be said for Burns in his second Giants season. There\u2019s extra weight on his shoulders with the double burden of higher expectations and being an official captain.<\/p>\n

It reminds of a quote associated with Burns\u2019 favorite comic character, Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility and Burns is ready to meet that challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t put any expectations or predictions or any of that stuff out in the open,\u201d Burns said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to enjoy the process. If I take care of everything that we\u2019re doing right now, it\u2019ll show. It\u2019ll show in ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Evan<\/a><\/p>\n

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Burns was speaking to reporters after he was named one of the Giants\u2019 five captains last Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,2321,2469,6,16517],"class_list":{"0":"post-331793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkgiants","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-san-francisco-giants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115125721990599523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}