The Chicago Bears' 2025 season was surprising in so many ways, but one of the nice surprises was the performance of one of their second-round picks, wide receiver Luther Burden.
Outside of the Week 3 game against the Dallas Cowboys, Burden had a quiet beginning of the season, but finished with 47 receptions for 652 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games. Bears head coach Ben Johnson spoke about Burden at the NFL's league meetings where he praised the young wide receiver.
“[Luther] is exactly what we thought we were getting out of the draft last year," Johnson said via CHGO, "this guy loves football. If you took football away from him, I don’t know what he would want to do with himself.”
Ben Johnson spoke about Luther Burden's rookie season with Bears
After the DJ Moore trade and Olamide Zaccheaus departure in free agency, Burden all of a sudden has skyrocketed the depth chart to the number two guy behind Rome Odunze. Burden is one of four players on the Bears who had at least 600 yards receiving on the season.
At the beginning of the 2025 campaign, Burden was used more often for bubble-screen passes that worked maybe half the time. When Odunze was hurt and out, Burden emerged as a deep threat and was getting more targets late in the season.
Chicago has a good problem with the passing game with Burden and Odzune at wide receiver and Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet at tight end. Even losing Moore and Zaccheaus isn't enough to hurt the Bears in the passing game with all the weapons they have.
Read more: Bears won't worry about NFL defenses knowing their offense for one obvious reason
Moore's trade only happened because of how much the team believes in Burden. The 2026 campaign looks like a breakout season for Burden.