Panthers Highlights: The best of Brian Burns through 5 games

The Panthers got a good one when they landed Brian Burns with the No. 16 overall pick in this year’s draft. It’s rare for rookies to come into the NFL and make an impact right away, but that’s exactly what he’s done.

Let’s take a look at some of the top plays from Burns so far this year.

Preseason sack on Chase Daniel

#Panthers first-round pick Brian Burns with sack no. 2 in his preseason debut! 💪💪#CARvsCHI

(📹 via @JoshNorris)
pic.twitter.com/6ydPewiGVF

— PFF (@PFF) August 9, 2019

Sacking Kyler Murray

Brian Burns is your defensive rookie of the month.

2.5 sacks through his first four games and has been generating consistent pressure pic.twitter.com/78l0K7fTXC

— Connor Rogers (@ConnorJRogers) October 3, 2019

Strip sack on Gardner Minshew

Brian Burns get off and bend forced Minshew up in the pocket and he counters inside and lets his motor do the rest for the strip sack. pic.twitter.com/WvIoG9ZJZf

— Rob Paul (@RobPaulNFL) October 9, 2019

The fumble return touchdown

BRIAN BURNS TO THE HOUSE! The Defensive Rookie of the Month @Fire_Burns99 scores his first NFL touchdown! #KeepPounding #JAXvsCAR

📺: CBS
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app
Watch free on mobile: https://t.co/d6meepU6Nz pic.twitter.com/Gqv7UhFGnc

— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2019

Tripping up Leonard Fournette

Brian Burns wins with initial burst, quickness, bend, and MOTOR. Most of his production this year has come from effort.

How hard he plays is impressive & gets him in on plays all over the field. Nice transition & burst here to trip up Fournette on the swing pass pic.twitter.com/u1cgFYSkEu

— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) October 11, 2019

The two disrupted punts

Brian Burns has directly impacted a punt twice in four games. Here are the two punts he has tipped so far.

Time it took for 53 to get to the spot:

🔹Rams: 2.02 sec
🔹Texans: 2.07 sec

(Thx to @PanthersMax for refreshing my memory on the Rams punt) pic.twitter.com/yTIZ5ou67n

— John Ellis (@OnePantherPlace) October 3, 2019

Aside from the obvious wheels (Burns reached the fastest speed of any defensive lineman this year on the touchdown) what jumps out on film is his relentlessness. Draft folks will call this motor – what it boils down to is Burns never gives up on a play. That’s going to serve him better than any of his physical gifts.

Burns was named Defensive Rookie of the Month for September and should be in the conversation with Nick Bosa to win Defensive Rookie of the Year.