4 keys to victory for the Carolina Panthers at Buccaneers in Week 18

Carolina Panthers must unleash Brian Burns

The most underrated disappointment of the season for the Carolina Panthers has to be the relative unknown that Brian Burns has become. After a second-year leap, the potential star defensive end has barely made a visible impact at any point and has been outshone massively by Haason Reddick and the progressing Yetur Gross-Matos in recent weeks.

Nine sacks on the year are nothing to sniff at and being selected as a Pro Bowl starter is also a mighty accomplishment for a player as young as Burns. However, it’s just not the kind of impact the team or the fanbase expected.

Burns is the type of player that many expected to take the NFL by storm in Year 3 and be able to change the game single-handedly, part of a dynamic duo with Reddick on the other side that no one could challenge. This hasn’t happened.

Getting the Florida State product going will be of utmost importance, not just for this Sunday but for beyond 2021 as well. Burns has sky-high potential but unless he can fully tap into it, it will remain just that.

The amount of times one has seen Burns stuffed by tackles nowhere near the quarterback this year has been incredibly frustrating. With the only real weakness to Tom Brady’s game being pressure, the former first-round pick has to start winning those matchups more often than not.

When Brady is on the run he makes bad choices, when he is pressured he makes mistakes. To beat this team you have to get the legendary signal-caller off-balance early and often and the Carolina Panthers’ best hope of that needs to wake up and start producing.