According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Panthers and DE Brian Burns are “not at all close” on a long-term extension at this point in time.
“They’ve been talkin’ for months. They are not at all close on a deal,” he said. “He’s gonna play games. But, yeah, frustration could boil over a little bit here eventually. This is an elite player.”
Burns is among a group of notable defensive linemen looking for extensions including Nick Bosa and Chris Jones.
Bosa is expected to sign a deal that makes him the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, north of $30 million per year, but it seems unlikely that Burns would be able to get to that level.
Burns, 25, was drafted by the Panthers No. 16 overall in the first round out of Florida State in 2019. He played out the fourth year of a four-year, $13,540,186 rookie contract that included a $7,867,408 signing bonus.
The Panthers exercised the fifth-year option for Burns for the 2023 season. It will cost Carolina $16.012 million fully guaranteed.
In 2022, Burns appeared in 16 games for the Panthers and recorded 63 total tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 12.5 sacks, one forced fumble and three pass defenses.
We’ll have more on the Panthers and Burns as the news is available.
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I’ve been on the Brian Burns bandwagon since day 1 and this is exactly why. Great, great player and sounds like a great great great young man. I really think he could surpass 22.5 this season en route to a possible 1st team All-Pro/Defensive Player of the Year level campaign. He’s never had this much talent around him since Carolina drafted and a lot of people who are a lot smarter than I am are saying that he’s going to thrive like never before in this new system so I’ll just take their word for it