Brian Burns wants a huge new contract. The Carolina Panthers have only one option.

Pay the man.

Simply put, that’s what the Carolina Panthers need to do with edge rusher Brian Burns, who is suddenly playing a bit of hardball in his contract negotiations.

After a summer of Burns showing up for every training camp practice and meeting, the two-time Pro Bowler hasn’t worked out with the team at either of its past two practices. He’s still going to meetings and still showing up at the team facility, but now the wedge driven between Burns and the team at the moment is quite visible. He’s “holding in,” to use the current parlance.

The Panthers, already iffy in terms of their pass rush, need to find a way to make this contract extension happen soon, before they open their regular season Sunday at Atlanta.

Do I blame Burns for this? No.

At 25 and coming off a 12.5-sack season, he’s in a better position at the moment to make a big contract happen for himself and his family than he will be for the rest of his career. He’s got leverage for a variety of reasons, and he’s using it. He also hasn’t taken the route of some other high-profile NFL defenders, in that he’s still around the team, has learned the defense and can be a “plug and play” edge rusher as soon as the deal is done.

The Panthers, meanwhile, could correctly contend that Burns is already under contract for this season — a guaranteed $16 million, since they already picked up his fifth-year option. If he was to sit out the Falcons game while un-injured, as he’s doing now, he would forfeit $888,888 by doing so.

And he would continue to lose nearly $900,000 per game for every game he misses. But of course that money could be made up on the backside by a huge new contract, and so it’s very much an option. Burns said in June he “definitely” wanted to be paid like the top edge rushers in the league.

Yes, the $16 million he’s already getting is crazy-good money, but it’s also not what Burns is worth in the current market for edge rushers. That figure, depending on which side you believe, would be roughly $23 million to $30 million per year, with the majority of it being guaranteed (unlike, say, NBA contracts, most NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed). At the moment, Burns ranks 12th in 2023 salary cap numbers among all NFL edge rushers, according to overthecap.com.

To back up for a second, here’s how valued Burns is around the league: The Panthers turned down the Los Angeles Rams’ offer to give them two future first-round draft picks for him — plus a little more than that — at the trade deadline in 2022. This was around the same time the Panthers traded Christian McCaffrey, for less of a haul than that, so that goes to show you how much the organization values Burns. (And if you weren’t going to trade him then, certainly don’t trade him now.)

Burns hasn’t answered questions recently about what he wants or what his strategy is with this hold-in.

Said Panthers coach Frank Reich Monday: “Honestly, I’m at the stage in this where I’m not involved in the contract negotiation — at all. I have zero (input). At this point, I have expressed — (owner) Mr. (Dave) Tepper, (GM Scott Fitterer) asked me my views on certain things — I expressed my views. I’m just worried about beating Atlanta, and getting our team ready to play Atlanta, really. That’s all that’s on my mind. Do I hope that he’s there? Absolutely, I hope he’s there. But if he’s not there, I’m not worried about it, just move forward.”

But the bill has come due on Burns. Like most, the number of millions that Burns and his agent extract from Tepper’s pocket is only modestly interesting to me. And I get it, it’s always easier to spend someone else’s money, which is what I’m trying to do here.

But the bottom line is that Tepper can afford it and the Panthers can afford it.

What they can’t afford is not to do this. The Panthers need to pay Burns, and get their best player on the field before Sunday rolls around.