NFL Draft Prospects 2019: Edge Rusher - Brian Burns, Florida State
This former five-star recruit from Fort Lauderdale immediately made an impact for the Seminoles, earning Freshman All-American honors as a reserve hybrid edge rusher, collecting 9.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss. Brian Burns has started every game these last two years and despite some underperforming FSU teams, he received recognition from the ACC, winning first-team all-conference last season with double-digit sacks and 15.5 TFLs.
With a long and slender build at 6’5”, 250 pounds and 34-inch arms, Burns might not be the type of player who will jack up players on the edge and stop any movement, but he is underrated as a run defender at the point of attack. He is so long that if he extends properly, he can keep vision on the backfield. This way he can either hold his contain or jump inside once the running decides to stick his foot in the ground, leading to tackles around the line of scrimmage or holding up the ball-carrier for his teammates to come join the party.
He has the range with those limbs to grab running backs on their way past him or rip at the ball. When Burns has a linebacker with responsibility for any pulled balls on zone-reads or such as, he shows outstanding pursuit from the backside and you can forget about some running plays where you actually leave him unblocked, while also doing a good job staying home on bootlegs. Moreover, when he recognizes plays quickly enough, Burns can dart inside and chase with a more direct angle. He also blocked a couple of punts in 2017.
Burns shows tremendous first step with a good jump off the snap in passing situations and burst around the arc with long strides and the bend to minimize contact with his offensive tackle. He can change things up with a quick up-and-under and has another variation of that rush series, where he uses a slight jab step to the inside in order for his tackle to stop his feet temporarily and dip under his lunging arms to get home.
He had this awesome strip-sack versus Miami on a move like that, where he jumped from behind and tomahawked the QB. After getting another sack on the first play of the following series, the Hurricanes started chipping him with their backs, which plenty of teams did during the year.
Burns also flashes a sweet spin-move to counter that speed off the edge and pretty good balance to stay on his feet when he’s already stumbling a little bit. In addition to that, he has plenty of experience standing up and working off different stunts. Burns led all edge rushers in college football with 67 total pressures in the 2018 regular season and while “only” ten of those ended in sacks, he did force the ball to come out quickly and when he got home he forced three fumbles.
With that being said, Burns gets upfield too quickly on run-downs and surrenders easy space underneath to run through, which ACC tackles took advantage of by almost inviting him to go outside and then just driving him that want. You might not want him to set the edge against tackles 30+ times a game with his frame anyway. Burns lacks any element of a speed to power conversion to take advantage of blockers having to get on their heels against him and well-schooled offensive tackles with quick enough feet can turn and ride him away from the quarterback.
Brian Burns reminds me a lot of another lean edge rusher who came into the draft recently – Leonard Floyd out of Georgia. Both of them have the speed of the edge and ability to come around the arc on an angle with a dipped shoulder while looking a little like big receivers body-wise.
At his size, Burns will probably fit best as a 3-4 rush linebacker, who drops into coverage on occasion. He did some of that already for Florida State, taking on hook-to-curl, flat as well as spy responsibilities and looked pretty comfortable moving around in space at the combine. In addition to that, he ran a 4.53 in the 40-yard dash and had some of the best leaping numbers in Indy. I think what will make him a franchise pass rusher is the way he can diagnose pass sets and counter them on the fly, which will only get better at the next level with more extensive tape work.
Grade: Midfirst