Panthers News: Bryce Young, Brian Burns, Justin Houston and Frank Reich
By Dean Jones
Carolina Panthers OLB Brian Burns striving for perfection
Brian Burns quickly became one of the standout performers from Wednesday's joint practice with the New York Jets. He was the catalyst behind another outstanding session from Ejiro Evero's defense, which could rapidly emerge into one of the league's surprise packages next season if the Carolina Panthers manage to avoid the injury bug.
The former first-round pick out of Florida State only enhanced his claims for a big-money deal with this sort of performance. Carolina's defense frustrated legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers and gained plenty of confidence heading into warmup games before the all-important Week 1 class arrives.
Burns wasn't completely satisfied based on his comments via the team's website. He acknowledged it was a decent practice and the ceiling is high, but that won't stop the edge rusher from striving for perfection when it's all said and done.
"I believe in staying even-keeled. Obviously, it was a good day for us. But we still have to go on the tape and figure out those last phases they had, those busted coverages or whatever, whatever we had that we messed up on, we've got to go figure that out and become more dominant. And that's just the perfectionist in me. Because I really believe in this defense, and I think that we won't have any weak points, to be honest."
- Brian Burns via Panthers.com
This is the right attitude to have and is a testament to Burns' leadership traits, which have come on a significant amount over the last two years. Just another reason why the Panthers could end up giving him a new deal of around $25 million per season once negotiations ramp up in the coming weeks.