The star pass rusher went down early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 12-7 win over the Titans. John Harbaugh says there is "some hope" pending an MRI, but a season-ending injury would follow quarterback Jaxson Dart’s knee injury a week earlier.
The Giants may have lost their best defensive player for the season just one week after losing their most important offensive one.
Pass rusher Brian Burns is feared to have torn his ACL in Sunday’s 12-7 win over the Titans at MetLife Stadium, ESPN reported. Burns, who had been playing through an ankle sprain suffered in Week 2, went down early in the fourth quarter and was helped off the field. He did not return.
Head coach John Harbaugh, whose team is now 2-1, said there was "some hope," but that nothing would be certain until an MRI.
Back-to-back blows
The news comes a week after quarterback Jaxson Dart was lost for the season with damage to his left knee, including his MCL and PCL.
Losing Burns would hit a pass rush that has already struggled. He finished second in the NFL last season with 16.5 sacks but has none so far this year. As a team, the Giants have one sack, which ranks 31st in the league, ahead of only the winless Dolphins.
Burns, 28, is in the third year of the five-year, $141 million extension he signed after arriving from Carolina in a 2024 trade. He had not missed a game as a Giant, piling up 25 sacks in 37 games.
Who steps up
If Burns is out, more will fall on Kayvon Thibodeaux, who is headed for free agency, and second-year edge rusher Abdul Carter. Carter has the team’s only sack, which came in the 28-6 loss to the Rams in Week 2.
The Giants host the 2-1 Cardinals next Sunday in a game that looks winnable. Playing the last 14 games without both Dart and Burns, though, would make the rest of Harbaugh’s season a steep climb.
Reporting in this story is based on coverage first published by the New York Post and reporting by ESPN. The photograph is a stock file image, not a photograph of the game described.
