Carolina Panthers agree to trade Brian Burns to New York Giants for draft picks

The Carolina Panthers have traded away another one of their homegrown standouts for a haul of draft picks.

On Monday, the Panthers agreed to trade pass rusher Brian Burns to the New York Giants, a league source confirmed.

According to the same league source, the Panthers will receive a 2024 second-round pick (39th overall) and a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for Burns. The teams will also swap 2024 fifth-round picks, with the Giants exchanging the 141st overall pick with the Panthers for the 166th overall pick.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport was the first report the trade agreement between the Panthers and the Giants. ESPN’s Jordan Raanan was first report the full trade compensation.

According to Rapoport, the Giants have agreed to terms with Burns on a five-year deal worth a maximum value of $150 million with $87.5 million in guaranteed money.

Carolina placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Burns earlier this month. Trading Burns to the Giants not only adds two picks to the Panthers’ draft selection inventory, but it also wipes out the $24 million cap charge put on the books by the franchise tag.

Burns now joins DJ Moore and Christian McCaffrey as former Panthers first-round picks with high-dollar contracts who were traded away in their prime. Both Moore and McCaffrey have since brought their games to new heights with the Chicago Bears and San Francisco 49ers, respectively. The Panthers will hope that Burns doesn’t follow suit.

Burns, who turns 26 in April, is coming off a down season statistically. In his lone season with defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Burns produced just eight sacks in 16 games. In 2022, Burns made his second Pro Bowl after posting a career-high 12.5 sacks.

Burns, the 16th overall pick in the 2019 draft, will now be one of the faces of the Giants’ defense, along with Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and fellow pass rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux. He will look to bounce back after an underwhelming final campaign — by his standards — in Carolina. New York will likely look to extend Burns as a follow-up transaction to the big haul sent to the Panthers for the pass rusher.

The Panthers failed to reach a contract extension with Burns during the final year of the Scott Fitterer era in 2023.

In 2022, the organization — led by Fitterer, the former general manager — turned down a trade offer from the Los Angeles Rams for two first-round picks — in 2024 and 2025 — and more, as reported by The Charlotte Observer and several other outlets. Despite the Panthers’ desire to make Burns a fixture of the team for the foreseeable future, the team and player failed to find common ground on a long-term contract. That conflict eventually led to the blockbuster trade that sent Burns to New York.

First-year GM Dan Morgan will now look to make up for Burns’ absence on defense. Morgan has seven draft picks to make the most of a youth movement that’s been brewing following a disastrous 2-15 season.

Here is a look at the Panthers’ updated draft pick inventory:

Second round (2): 33rd overall (first pick in round), 39th overall (via NYG; seventh pick in round)

Third round (1): 65th overall (first pick in round)

Fourth round (1): 101st overall (first pick in round)

Fifth round (2): 141st overall (via NYG; sixth pick in round), 142nd overall (via TEN; seventh pick in round)

Sixth round (1): 178th overall (via AZ; second pick in round)