LAKE FOREST, Ill., — Wide receiver Luther Burden III made it known he plays with a chip on his shoulder after teams passed on him in the 2025 NFL Draft. With the Chicago Bears selecting him early in the second round, Burden joined a loaded offense and found himself as WR4 early on.
But Sunday's performance against the New York Giants proved again that he needs more reps. His head coach, Ben Johnson, agrees.
"You've slowly seen his rep count go up. He's the guy that's starting to get more targets," Johnson said on Monday. "It's a trust level between the coaches and the player. It's a trust level between the quarterback and a receiver. It continues to ascend. And so, he's been very productive when we've been able to get the ball in his hands, and there's a strong argument that we should get it to him more."
On Sunday, Burden made arguably one of the biggest plays of the game on offense when he caught a pass from Caleb Williams and took it 27 yards to the Giants' 28. It set up the Bears in great position as they would score a few plays later to take the lead. The route was a deep stopper with Burden getting the defensive back to think he was going deep, then stopping on a dime where the ball was coming in. He then fought for more yards.
"I think I had press on that," Burden said. "So it was pretty easy. Deep stopper, get 'em going and just stop on the dime and get a good completion."
It was a great example of how polished his route running is as a rookie and what he can do with the ball in his hands after the catch. Williams noted that as well in the postgame.
"As 'Lu' has said, when he gets the ball in his hands and he's one-on-one, he's pretty dangerous," Williams said. "I had full belief. It's something that we've been throwing for, I think we've had it up for about three weeks now. So I just felt confident in that moment — and I felt confident in him."
Burden got off to a slow start this offseason, dealing with a soft tissue injury. That hurt his development as a rookie, but even so, the talent was still there and you couldn't deny the skillset that had scouts raving about him while at Missouri.
As the games have gone on, Burden has seen an uptick in reps, which has led to more production. He's now forcing his way into getting more reps even in a crowded wide receiver room. But that's not a bad thing at all.
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