The New York Giants hope they put together one of the most dynamic pass-rushing duos in the league with Brian Burns and Abdul Carter. They traded for the former last offseason, sending a 2024 second-round pick and 2025 fifth-round pick to the Carolina Panthers, before drafting Carter with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. As it turns out, this prospective dynamic duo has already needed to work off each other to make sure everyone was under contract.
ESPN reports that in order to get far enough under the cap to sign the rookie Carter, the Giants restructured the five-year, $141 million contract the club gave to Burns last offseason. Spotrac reports Burns had $16 million of his base salary converted to a signing bonus, which created $12 million in cap space. Carter then was able to sign his four-year, fully-guaranteed $45,255,180 rookie deal.
In his first season with the Giants, Burns recorded a career-high 71 combined tackles, 8.5 sacks and eight passes defensed to go along with two forced fumbles. The two-time Pro Bowler is one of just eight players since 1982 to record 7.5 sacks in each of his first six NFL seasons. His 54.5 career sacks are tied for eighth-most in the NFL since 2019 — the year he was selected by Carolina with the No. 16 overall pick.
As for Carter, he was the highest-drafted pass rusher by the Giants since they selected the legendary Lawrence Taylor at No. 2 overall in 1981. The 2024 unanimous All-American led the FBS in tackles for loss last season with 24, and recorded the third-most pressures with 66.
This new iteration of the “Big Blue Wrecking Crew” has potential. Burns and Carter are expected to be the two starting outside rushers, while Dexter Lawrence has recorded the third-most pressures by a defensive tackle since 2022 with 164, and Kayvon Thibodeaux has notched 21 sacks over his first three seasons.
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