Brian Burns said on Tuesday that Charlie Bullen, promoted on Monday to interim defensive coordinator of the New York Giants after the firing of Shane Bowen, is “going to shoot it straight to you.”
“Charlie is a guy that he’s going to shoot it straight to you,” Burns said. “You’re not really going to sugar coat much, and yeah, he’s going to demand your best because he’s going to give you his.”
The selection by interim head coach Mike Kafka of the 41-year-old Bullen, who has never been a defensive coordinator at any level over more experienced coaches like Marquand Manuel (defensive backs) and Andre Patterson (defensive line) surprised some.
Burns said he was “grateful” that the choice was Bowen.
“I wasn’t really surprised,” Burns said. “We could have went either way. I wouldn’t have been mad with any of the choices, but I’m just a little bit more grateful because Charlie’s been in my room for two years.
“Charlie’s a smart coach. I feel like he’s been around a lot, he has a lot of experience, he was under a great tree, and just talking ball with him every day, watching extensive film with him every day, I picked up on his football knowledge. So, I think it’s a good – but I feel like on our defensive staff, we could have really went either way.
“ … Me and him have a very tight relationship.”
Burns called the firing of Bowen, hired as Giants defensive coordinator last season, “abummer.”
“I like Shane and I worked with him this whole year being a leader, well and last year,” Burns said. “But being a leader of the defense, we had to develop a certain relationship, so that’s why it’s a bummer. It’s the nature of the business. Once you have that first fire [former head coach Brian Daboll], things start to kind of happen from there. I’ve seen it before, so it’s not like a crazy shocker, but it’s just tough sometimes having that relationship with somebody for so long and then they just leave.”
With five games to play, Burns has a career-high 13 sacks this season. He has 21 quarterback hits, one away from his career high, and his next tackle for loss will be his career-best 18th. In his seventh season, the 27-year-old Burns credits Bullen with pushing him to be better than he had ever been.
“We’ve had many talks,” Burns said. “The only thing I can think of off the top of my head right now is, he said, ‘To do something you haven’t done, you have to do something you haven’t done.’
“That’s essentially talking about my process. I really feel like he helped my process out a lot just from watching film to what I do with my body and just the intentionality that I put in everything that I’m trying to get towards, you know what I mean. We’ve had multiple talks about my play and where he sees it and he shoots it straight, so that’s all I can ask from him and that’s what I appreciate.”
Burns said this late in the season Bullen won’t be able to overhaul the defensive philosophy, but knows there will be “some small things changing just because it’s a new guy calling the plays.”
The Giants are finishing out a disappointing 2-10 season, now with interim leaders at head coach and defensive coordinator and with obvious questions about the future direction of the franchise. Burns, who has never played on a winning team during his time in the NFL, said none of that is an excuse for players not to give their best.
“This is the end of the season, all the goals that you wanted to hit that you had penciled out before the season, why not go out there and give it all you’ve got to get to it,” Burns said. “If you want to look at it [the change from Bowen to Bullen] as a clean slate, you can. I’ve kind of been looking at the back half of the season as, I’m going to go all out regardless of our record or regardless of whatever we’re eliminated, whatever. It doesn’t really matter to me. What only matters when I’m between the white lines is the film that I put out there. So, that’s kind of what I’m focused on and what I’m trying to reiterate to the guys.”
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