The fanfare surrounding the Chicago Bears' selection of wide receiver Luther Burden III in the second round of the 2025 NFL draft was hard to miss. Long dubbed a first-round prospect, Burden's freefall into Round 2 landed him on almost every 'draft-day steals' list, making the Bears a big winner from draft weekend.
But, if you've been a Bears fan long enough, you know that you don't count your rookie chickens before they hatch.
We've been down this road before. You know the one: Chicago earns a high grade for their NFL draft haul, only to be let down by injuries or poor performance. Remember Kevin White? The 2015 first-round wideout was dubbed the next Larry Fitzgerald, but a leg injury during the Bears' offseason program, one that Chicago remained vague and unclear about, turned into a metal rod being inserted and a career derailed.
Fast forward to 2025, and Burden, the player who generated so much buzz, has missed almost all of the Bears' offseason program for what's been described as a soft-tissue injury. And maybe that's all it is; maybe Chicago is being conservative in their effort to avoid further injury. Let's face it, what really matters is what these guys do in pads in training camp.
Still, there's no doubt Burden -- and Colston Loveland, who's rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery -- will suffer from this missed time as he acclimates to life in the NFL.
Bears coach Ben Johnson addressed this issue with as much clarity as a fan could hope for on Tuesday.
"Anytime you're not out there, if you're in the training room when the rest of the guys are practicing, you're losing valuable time. Valuable time with your coaches, valuable reps with your teammates, the ability to build the trust that we're talking about. It's not just the coaching staff having trust in you doing the right thing over and over, but it's also your teammates. They've got to be out there, they've got to see you do it. They've got to know that the guys to the right and left of them are going to do the right things and make the right plays when called upon.
"It's a shame that he got dinged up and missed all that time, because for a young player, it's really where you get the most reps, and you can get better in a hurry that way. And that's really for any player on this team."
Burden's absence has helped veteran free-agent addition Olimade Zaccheaus build an early connection with Caleb Williams, while his pre-existing rapport with DJ Moore and the development of Rome Odunze have also taken center stage.
That leaves Burden likely fighting for reps that were assumed he'd get right away as a rookie. That's not the case anymore, regardless of the post-draft hype that he was showered with.
Loveland isn't immune to a slow start to his rookie year, either. While his injury and his recovery timeline were already baked into his draft evaluation, he, too, is missing valuable reps in his first pro offseason. That's good news for Cole Kmet, who can cement his standing as a valuable contributor on offense while Loveland remains on the mend.
Both Luther Burden and Colston Loveland are expected to be full go in training camp, but, as any Bears fan would probably say, we'll believe it when we see it.
