Brian Burns dedicated to Giants despite struggling team streak

Brian Burns is new to the Giants — not to the situation his Giants are in.

Six years into his NFL career, Burns has a master’s degree in playing hard during meaningless late-season games, when other players with financial security might find a pain that says it’s time to shut the body down as a business decision.

Burns has been playing through a groin injury — gingerly limping around the locker room after games — since Week 3. He still entered Sunday with the second-most snaps played of any NFL defensive lineman, according to FantasyPros.

“I can only speak for myself, and my motivation comes from inside,” Burns said. “My pride, basically. I’m just not going to go out there and lay down. I’ve been playing banged up all year. It’s just not in me to lay down to anybody.”

The iron man Burns thought he was escaping dark days when he was traded from the Panthers (who went 24-59 over his first five seasons) to the Giants. Instead, the Giants (2-10) have lost seven straight, including one to the Panthers, and became the first team eliminated from playoff contention via a loss to the Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

The Giants certainly were expecting more than six sacks from Burns in March, when they traded second- and fifth-round picks, agreed to a fifth-round pick swap and outlaid the NFL’s second-biggest contract to an edge rusher.

A deeper dive, however, shows Burns’ pass-rush win rate is fourth-best among edge rushers — more in line with his five-year, $141.5 million contract.

Not to mention Burns hasn’t had much help of late as the Giants have just one sack (by Burns) in their past four games. The pass rush that led the NFL in sacks after eight games has slipped out of the top five during that span.

Burns’ job is only going to get more difficult beginning Sunday against the Saints now that nose tackle Dexter Lawrence likely is out for the season. Double-teams that previously were sliding toward overmatched centers will now be focused Burns’ way.

And with top backup edge rusher Azeez Ojulari on injured reserve for at least three more weeks, the likelihood of limiting Burns’ snaps over the final five games of the regular season is slim.

Head coach Brian Daboll scoffed at the idea of conservatively managing players out of long-term thinking. Of course, such a strategy could hurt Daboll’s chances of returning next season and be considered tanking, which the Giants steadfastly are against.

“Status quo,” Daboll said. “It’s just play time, and everything we can do to put the best guys out there. That’s what we’re looking for.”

With Lawrence sidelined, Burns’ presence could be the key to policing any “soft” efforts like the Giants showed two weeks ago against the Buccaneers and at other blowout points during the season.

He owns 10.5 career sacks in December and January, when the Panthers were 4-19, including five in 10 games played after his team was eliminated.

Burns thought it was a good sign the Giants didn’t allow any points over the last 19 minutes against the Cowboys and forced a 17-point deficit to be whittled to one third-down stop away from getting the ball back to the offense with a chance to tie.

“I felt like we fought,” Burns said. “We came up short, but I didn’t see any effort issues. We just have to make plays. There are certain plays we could’ve made that could’ve affected the game in a positive way, and we didn’t come down with them.”

That’s the story of the Giants’ season. And the story that has followed Burns even after he changed places.