Brian Burns Is No. 14 on NFL’s Top 100 Players of 2026, Highest Ever for a Giants Defender
Burns matched Jason Pierre-Paul's 16.5 sacks from the Giants' 2011 Super Bowl season and ranks 10 spots higher than Pierre-Paul did the next year. Only Odell Beckham Jr. has ever ranked higher among Giants.
Brian Burns is No. 14 on the NFL's "Top 100 Players of 2026." It is the highest ranking any Giants defender has received since the players-voted list began in 2011.
Burns set career highs in 2025 with 16.5 sacks, 22 tackles for loss and 31 quarterback hits. His 31 quarterback hits are the most by a Giant since the NFL began tracking the stat in 2006, according to Giants.com, and he is fifth in the league with 71 sacks since entering the NFL in 2019. He was voted a team captain last season, earned second-team All-Pro honors from the Associated Press and made his third career Pro Bowl, his first with the Giants.
The Top 100 is voted on by current players. The Giants have had at least one player on the list every year since it began.
Burns' 16.5 sacks matched Jason Pierre-Paul's total from the Giants' 2011 championship season. The two seasons are tied for the fourth-most sacks in a single season in franchise history, behind two Michael Strahan seasons and Lawrence Taylor's 20.5 in 1986.
Pierre-Paul ranked No. 24 on the 2012 Top 100, 10 spots below Burns' ranking this year. He was the highest-ranked of five Giants on the list following their Super Bowl XLVI championship. Eli Manning was No. 31, Victor Cruz No. 39, Justin Tuck No. 62 and Hakeem Nicks No. 90.
That means Burns ranks higher than every Giant from the Top 100 that followed the franchise's last championship season.
The circumstances were different. Pierre-Paul had 16.5 sacks for a team that won the Super Bowl. Burns had 16.5 for a team that finished 4-13. The Giants have not won a playoff game since the 2022 season and have not won the NFC East since 2011 — the longest active division-title drought in the conference.
Burns is not the highest-ranked Giant in Top 100 history. Odell Beckham Jr. reached No. 8 in 2017 after ranking No. 10 the year before. But no Giants defender has reached Burns' No. 14.
Pierre-Paul held the defensive mark at No. 24 for more than a decade. Landon Collins reached No. 28 in 2017. Dexter Lawrence tied Pierre-Paul at No. 24 in 2024, then moved ahead of him at No. 17 in 2025. Burns went three spots higher this year.
Lawrence's No. 17 ranking came in his final season with the Giants. New York traded him to Cincinnati on April 20 for the No. 10 pick in the 2026 draft. Burns now enters his third season with the Giants at the front of a pass rush that also includes Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
The Giants play their second preseason game Saturday against the Dolphins in Miami.