The pros, cons and cost for the Lions to sign Brian Burns
Edge rusher day continues for us here AtoZ Detroit. We already covered Josh Allen and Danielle Hunter. This time we'll be talking about Panthers edge Brian Burns. The Pros The former 16th overall pick is still just 25-years-old so the Lions are getting a key piece of the future here. Burns has generated 46 sacks, […]
Edge rusher day continues for us here AtoZ Detroit. We already covered Josh Allen and Danielle Hunter. This time we'll be talking about Panthers edge Brian Burns.
The Pros
The former 16th overall pick is still just 25-years-old so the Lions are getting a key piece of the future here. Burns has generated 46 sacks, 246 pressures and 53 quarterback hits in his five year career.
He's also been able to stay relatively healthy in those four years. He's just missed a handful of games in his career and it's been something like one a season and not a few season.
Cons
2023 wasn't that great of year for Burns. Besides playing on the worst team in the NFL, Burns sack total dropped from 12.5 in 2022 to eight in 2023. Eight isn't horrible, but it's the second lowest total of his career and if the Lions are about to play a lot of money for a player, you'd hope that player would be coming off a good year as opposed to an ok year.
I think Burns is one of those players that had a really good season in his career and left an everlasting image burned in our brains that this is who he always is. In reality he's a good player, but he shouldn't cost what I'm about to lay out in my opinion.
What would he cost?
Our on staff cap specialists project that a deal for Burns would be 4 years for $90 million. The annual per year salary would be $22.5 million and $60 million would be guaranteed.
Could it happen?
The Panthers publicly took Burns off the trade block last year because they wanted to keep him. I'm not sure how serious they ever were about trading him. Carolina has desperation written all over them with this rebuild. They're on the second coach of it a year latter and I don't think this team has any designs on letting their top defensive star leave. He's got franchise tag written all over him.
Top 5 edge rushers for the Lions in free agency
We've reached the second half of February. Now it's time to start talking about free agent prospects for the Detroit Lions. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to break it all down by positions of need. First we'll put out of list of players to watch for the Lions and then we'll break […]
