Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson is banking on an explosive sophomore season from wide receiver Luther Burden III.
The Bears drafted Burden in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. He was a serviceable piece of the Bears’ offense as a slot receiver. But Johnson said Thursday that Burden has already elevated his game through a few days of OTAs, and is becoming a complete player at the position.
“He’s still developing and growing his route tree,” Johnson said. “[Wide receivers] coach [Antwaan Randle] El and [offensive quality control coach] Isaiah Ford, they’ve done a phenomenal job with him just working to develop those things: speed cuts to sharp breaks, releases, things of that nature. And he’s been extremely coachable. So I’m really happy with him.”
Burden will have a chance to increase his workload this season. The Bears traded wideout D.J. Moore, their second-leading pass catcher in 2025, to the Buffalo Bills. Johnson said Thursday that they are looking for opportunities to get him the ball; it’s easy to manufacture touches in the short passing game, but Burden is making it easier because of his expanding route tree.
“I think when we drafted him, we saw an explosive athlete who was really dangerous with the ball in his hands,” he said. “The question was, how can we get it in his hands? The easy things to do are screens or short throws, but I think there’s a lot more to his game that we’ve worked to unlock, and he’s been really receptive to how we can get that done. He ran a route yesterday, [and] that was the first time he’d ran that route and he ran it as well as I’ve been around. So things like that really get you excited as a coach.”
The Bears drafted Burden out of Missouri with the 39th pick in the 2025 Draft. Coming out of college, Burden showed an intriguing blend of size (6 feet tall, 206 pounds) and speed (4.41 40-yard dash). Johnson said that Burden is growing from the raw prospect they drafted to a complete receiver.
“[H]e looks like he’s playing at a different speed right now, and you knew he had it in him,” he said. “He’s a 4.4 guy, and yet those timed speeds don’t always translate to real speed, football speed, the game tape. And so I think we’re starting to see that now. He’s playing, he’s not thinking as much. He knows what we’re trying to do. And so you kind of see that with a number of these guys, as I alluded to before, that have been here for a little bit of time now, that the game’s slowing down for him, and it allows their abilities to come out.”
Besides Burden, the Bears will rely on their young receiving corps, led by third-year man Rome Odunze, veteran return specialist Kalif Raymond, 2025 undrafted free agent Jahdae Walker, veteran Scotty Miller, speedy rookie Zavion Thomas, third-year pro Maurice Alexander, second-year man J.P. Richardson, and 2026 UDFAs Omari Kelly and Kyron Hudson.