Luther Burden Breaks Silence After Draft Day Slide!

It was one of the best answers given to a question during the NFL draft at Halas Hall and fell kind of by the wayside because of when it occurred.

Luther Burden III had fallen out of the first round after reading and hearing about his reported "character" issues over the last few week before the draft.

He had been stunned by it all on the night the Bears selected him in Round 2, 39th overall, after so many high hope of going somewhere in Round 1.

“It's pretty much behind me now, but it's always in the back of my head," Burden said at Halas Hall on the final day of the draft. "Teams chose other people above me.

"So, I’ll see them.”

The chip is firmly planted on his shoulder, like it is so often for players who get drafted later than  they anticipated.

"I think anytime you’re in a situation where you feel like you got passed by, by certain teams for certain reasons, I do think that chip grows on your shoulder and it ignites a different type of work ethic, a different type of mentality," Bears GM Ryan Poles said. "The key thing is capturing that and making sure that it carries on. It's not just, you know, a flash-in-the-pan type thing. Can we consistently put that time, that effort, that work in, to be at a really high level?"

The thing Poles likes, is Burden will have to be that way or he won't see much playing time.

"The beautiful thing about our situation, you come in, you have to compete," Poles said. "There’s guys in this room that have played either, you know, Rome (Odunze) coming off of his year last year to DJ (Moore) who's played for a long time to (Devin) Duvernay to all of them.

"Like, you have to bring it if you want time on the field. And again, I think if I can't emphasize anything else, I'll go back to Ben's (Johnson) deal about being comfortable. There’s some guys that are going to have to grind a little bit harder than probably they ever have before. So I think it's going to push everyone to be really good.”

The other teams' loss in this case could be the Bears' gain.

“I was super happy, fell into a great situation," Burden said. "Felt blessed. I'm super excited to be a part of this organization and I'm happy that they believe in me.”

Why he fell hasn't been specifically spelled out, although there were several sketchy situations best described as less than ideal but hardly destructive.

Some teams might have been concerned about Burden's drop in catches and yards from 86 receptions, 1,212 yards and nine TDs in 2023 to 61 catches and 676 yards with six TDs in 2024.

But Missouri quarterback Brady Cook had a big dip in his production from 66.1% completions to 62.6% and from 3,317 yards to 2,535 yards. He had 21 TD passes in 2022 and 11 in 2023 when the offensive line had difficulties.

Burden also had an injury and an illness during that season, although neither situation was considered serious.

There had been questions for Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz prior to the draft about Burden's character.

Missouri Tigers on SI's Joey Van Zummeren reported Drinkwitz addressing this during an interview on the Rich Eisen Show early in April.

"There are these quiet critics out here who say he has a character problem," Drinkwitz told Eisen. "My response to everybody has been, he's never been arrested, he's never had a public incident at our university, he has never once been to my office to complain about his role.

"He's just been a great teammate."

Some of it may have come from the game against Auburn in his first Missouri season when he didn't have a touch. He wiped mention of Missouri from his Instagram account, according to Zummeren.

That was three years ago, though, and Burden was an 18-year-old.

Burden had two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties within three plays of each other against Boston College in a Missouri win when he made six catches for 117 yards and a touchdown in 2024. A Boston College player yanked Burden's mouthguard out on one penalty after an incompletion, so Burden reciprocated. The second guy in got the penalty, as usual.

A few plays later, Burden ran around end to the sidelines and while out of bounds tossed the ball into a Boston College player's face for 15 more yards. It led to Burden getting scolded by Drinkwitz, according to Zummeren's report.

"I just gotta cut the nonsense out," Burden admitted to reporters afterward. "Stay composed. I don't want to put my team in that position anymore. So I'm glad to learn from it."

Bears fans have seen this type of quick, rash response from their team's receivers after being taunted or harassed in some way.

Former Bears receiver Javon Wims in 2020 was goaded into a fight at Soldier Field by the Saints defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. Then teammate Anthony Miller let himself get caught in the same situation in the playoffs and was ejected from a game when the Bears already were without receiver Darnell Mooney due to injury.

The incident ended Miller's Bears career. He had been a volatile second-round slot wide receiver and after the Bears cut him he since has made 13 receptions with three other teams.

This type of mental and extraneous chicanery is common in a league where defensive players are seeking any edge possible to throw off explosive offenses.

Whether it was incidents like these or the 2022 behavior after not getting a touch, or the drop in production, Burden stock fell to Round 2. It may have even been the comments in Bob McGinn's annual anonymous report from NFL scouts that knocked his practice habits and called him "ordinary." 

Burden's road had been a rough one and he's been through more difficult things.

He had lived in a tough area near St. Louis, but kept his focus as a star athlete thanks, in part, to the influence of friend and mentor Demetrious Johnson. The former NFL player died suddenly in 2022 just as Burden's college career had begun.

With Burden in Chicago now, he'll be under the tutelage of perhaps the best man on staff for this sort of thing in receivers coach Antwaan Randle El.

"The relationship is going to grow over time," Burden said. "We got to find a way to trust each other and just build each and every day. We got the same goal. We are trying to win games here, win playoffs, win Super Bowls, and we are locked in."

Dropping to Round 2 hurts the wallet and pride, but doesn't end anything. Burden's career has been one of overcoming obstacles with toughness so this is nothing new.

“I think it's just in me," he said at Halas Hall after the draft. "Just where I come from and being overlooked my whole life.

"I just love it, prove everybody wrong who got something negative to say about me.”

The best way to do that is give them only positives to discuss.