FSU Football: Evaluating Brian Burns being drafted by Carolina Panthers

FSU football saw another one of their highest rated players in recent seasons get picked early on when Brian Burns was taken No. 16 in the first round.

For the FSU football team, all the pain and suffering that came from the first losing season in over four decades went away on Thursday night with the news that another former Seminoles star – this time, defensive end Brian Burns after his dominance in the college game – was going to get a chance to shine at the next level.

Shortly before 10 p.m., less than two hours into the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Carolina Panthers pulled the trigger and went out to select Burns with the 16th pick overall in the first round in front of over 150,000 people in the city of Nashville.

Burns being picked in the middle of the first round was the complete end to a story about where he would go – with some experts having him going as early as the top 10 of all the picks while others had him falling out of the first round and waiting until Friday before hearing his named called.

In Burns, the Panthers are getting someone who was not just the best defensive player for FSU football over much of the last three seasons but also someone who is going to grind at all points on the field whether he is playing at the defensive end spot or as the EDGE rusher coming from the outside linebacker spot.

Take a look at this footage from his junior season in 2018 with FSU football as he was mobile across all points of the field and found the ball – and got it to the ground or the person holding onto it went down to the turf.

In Carolina, Burns will have to be someone who will be grinding on almost every down and have to make sure that his notch is turned him on almost every single down. He’s going to be expected to be someone to lead the Panthers on the edge, the same way he led FSU football both during his freshman and junior seasons in Tallahassee.

Burns was someone whose first step off the ball made himself into someone who was in the backfield right off the snap almost every single play – an advantage he’s going to have to keep when he gets to the NFL starting in just around a week.

The Panthers will start off the season with two straight games at home before having just one game at home over the next six weeks. Carolina will finish their regular season with five of their final nine games at home, including finishing the 2019 regular season with games against Seattle and New Orleans.