- Career day against Dallas: Luther Burden III recorded a 93.0 receiving grade in Week 3.
- Winning down the field: Burden saw a 66.7% deep target rate against the Dallas Cowboys.
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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
The Chicago Bears made a concerted effort to surround quarterback Caleb Williams with new coaching and talent so that the team can take the next step in the division and Williams can become a franchise quarterback.
Luther Burden III is one of those new pieces. He was drafted at Pick 39 in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, which was seen as a big value add at the time, as Burden ranked 15th on the PFF big board as a first-round talent. Burden was coming off somewhat of a down year, earning a 77.9 receiving grade at Missouri in 2024, but some of his lack of production could be explained by the Tigers' passing offense taking a step back – the previous season, in 2023, Burden earned an 88.9 receiving grade as the main component for a more potent passing attack.
Even though there was plenty to be excited about with Burden on draft night, he was being added to a room that already had receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze in addition to tight end Colston Loveland, who is a receiving tight end that they selected in the first round. Many wondered whether there would even be targets for Burden in the 2025 Bears offense, given how many mouths it had to feed.
Through the first two games of 2025, it looked like Burden might be the odd man out. He played just 16 receiving snaps through the first two games, seeing just one target (behind the line of scrimmage) in Week 1. Though he saw two targets in Week 2, he caught just one pass for three yards. However, in Week 3, he saw three targets, caught three passes, and recorded 101 receiving yards and a touchdown, thanks in large part to a 65-yard flea-flicker.
While it’s unlikely Burden will see a regular number of trick-play deep passes moving forward, his best usage within the 2025 version of Chicago’s offense did seem to be revealed. Burden obviously scored his highest receiving grade mark of the season at 93.0 for his production in Week 3. Though the numbers are skewed due to the weight of his 65-yard catch, being the deep receiver in the Bears' offense is likely his best role moving forward. Burden was always going to be WR3, at best, when it came to a target share – in reality, it’s even lower than that to start the season. Right now, his six targets rank sixth on the team behind Odunze, Moore, Olamide Zaccheaus, D'Andre Swift and Cole Kmet. Burden has also only played on 24.23% of the Bears' offensive snaps through three weeks.
Prior to Week 3, his average depth of target was 0.7 yard, but in Week 3, it was obviously much higher at 21.0. When you look at the rest of the route tree that the Bears’ receivers are asked to run, Odunze’s top two routes are ins (16.7%) and outs (16.7%), showcasing him as their most consistent intermediate receiver – which is also a big reason why he has the most targets. For Moore, his most run routes are ins (16.4%) and go routes (17.9%). Moore runs more vertical routes than Odunze, and when Moore scored his highest receiving grade of his Bears career in 2023 (89.5), he ran mostly go routes (19.1%). However, an underrated part of that 2023 season was that Moore also had Chase Claypool and Tyler Scott run a ton of vertical routes to keep the defense honest as well. The 2025 version of that deep threat duo could now be Burden, as go, deep posts and deep corner routes accounted for 66.5% of his routes in Week 3.
Odunze feels like he’s going to be the Bears' high-target man this season as their top intermediate and sideline receiver. Though Moore can do it all as well, his best years have come when offenses let him attack deep. Nonetheless, in order to really get open downfield, the Bears have to put stress on the defense and not let them key in on Moore when he’s running routes beyond 20 yards. Burden showed flashes of being another deep threat option that opposing teams must cover. This opens up Moore down the field, Odunze at the sidelines, and the tight end passing game over the middle.
Continued success as a deep threat for Burden could hold the key to the Bears being one of the top passing attacks in the league.
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