New York Giants outside linebacker Brian Burns was clearly the team’s MVP in 20205, and it wasn’t even close.
The 27-year-old Burns not only had the best season of his seven-year NFL career, in which he set a new single-season best 16.5 sacks, earning his third career Pro Bowl berth (the only Giants player to receive a Pro Bowl berth in 2025), and a second-team All-Pro nod.
The 16.5 sacks were also second in the NFL, behind newly crowned single-season sack record holder Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns’ 23.0 sacks.
Despite Burns’s career year, he was not named among Pro Football Focus’s top 101 players of 2025.
In addition to Garrett, who ranked first on the list, the other 12 edge rushers who were given a ranking included:
Demarcus Lawrence of the Seahawks (No. 94)
Laiatu Latu of the Colts (No. 85)
Byron Young of the Rams (No. 83)
Nik Bonitto of the Broncos (No. 74)
Maxx Crosby of the Raiders (No. 69)
Jared Verse of the Rams (Nop. 68)
Greg Rousseau of the Bills (No. 64)
Josh Hines-Allen of the Jaguars (No. 49)
Danielle Hunter of the Texans (No. 26)
Micah Parsons of the Packers (No. 13)
Aidan Hutchinson of the Lions (No. 7)
Will Anderson, Jr. of the Texans (No. 5)
What was PFF thinking?
New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns
New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns runs out of the tunnel during a Thursday Night Football game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Oct. 9, 2025. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Granted, the Giants had a miserable season in 2025, but for anyone thinking that the criteria for inclusion on the list were tied to being part of a winning program, that was not the case, as evident by the inclusion of Latu and Anderson among the edge rushers.
That Burns was not included is not only a clear-cut snub but a headscratcher. Since being acquired by the Giants in a trade during the 2024 offseason from the Panthers, Burns has appeared in every single regular-season game and over 860 defensive snaps in each of those two seasons.
His sack total is clearly more than everyone who ranked, save for Garrett, while his 22 tackles for loss, which put him third in the league, are only behind Garrett (33) and Crosby (28).
Burns’s 31 quarterback hits ranked fourth in the league last season. He also posted seven pass breakups, more than any edge rusher on the top-101 list. Crosby was closest, with six.
PFF explained that the ranking was based on 2025 and that the list treated all positions equally, which could explain why Burns was snubbed.
However, if production—measured by key stats—was a primary criterion, it's unclear why Burns failed to land a spot in place of a player with less production. PFF did not specify how much weight production carried compared to other factors, leaving their criteria somewhat ambiguous.
One Giants player did make the cut
New York Giants offensive tackle Andrew Thomas
New York Giants offensive tackle Andrew Thomas | Lucas Boland-Imagn Images
All was not a total washout for the Giants in terms of being represented on the PFF top 101 players of 2025. Left tackle Andrew Thomas ranked No. 41; his ranking is tied to his PFF grades.
“Thomas’ 90.3 PFF overall grade this past season tied a career high and ranked fifth among all offensive tackles,” the analysis said.
“One of just six players at the position to earn PFF pass-blocking and run-blocking grades above 80.0, the fourth overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft finished the year with a career-low 13 pressures surrendered.”
Thomas’s 13 pressures allowed werethe lowest total among the 58 offensive tackles who had at least 650 blocking snaps.
Thomas’s 98.3 pass-blocking efficiency rating ranked second among qualifying tackles. Garrett Bolles of the Broncos led with a 98.5 rating, having played 453 more snaps than Thomas.
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