I was surprised when the Bears selected Luther Burden with the 39th pick. They seem to be overstocked with pass catchers.
This is the team, after all, that has DJ Moore and Rome Odunze already in place. Odunze was a top-10 pick last year. He’s under contract for four more years, and Moore is under contract for five more years.
And the Bears have arguably the league’s best pair of tight ends. Cole Kmet is an above-average tight end, but they dipped into that position again in this year’s draft, picking Colston Loveland 10th. The hope is that Loveland will be a true elite mismatch weapon – maybe a bigger, better version of Sam LaPorta.
In this situation, it seems like it will be tough for Burden to find much of a role, particularly early. He was not productive at Missouri last year, catching 61 passes for 676 yards, with 6 TDs.
Burden finished with almost twice as many yards the previous season, catching 86 passes for 1,212 yards and 9 TDs. He’s not particularly big (6-0, 206 pounds) but is considered one of the best after-the-catch receivers in the draft. He ran 4.41 at the combine.
For now, I’m thinking Burden looks like a developmental guy who’ll be mixed in for for a limited number of plays. Maybe in some future season, he develops into another Amon-Ra St. Brown, but for now, I think we’ll be seeing DJ Moore get most of the quality reps inside.
At the same time, the Bears are obviously high on Burden; they wouldn’t have taken him 39th overall if they weren’t. And when guys get picked that early, it’s with the expectation of getting them on the field.
In the last 10 years, 21 wide receivers have been selected in the first half of the second round. Over half of those guys put up top-60 stats (PPR) in their first season. All but six of them were one of the top two receivers on their own team. (Only three weren’t at least one of the top three wide receivers on their own team.)
Situations are different, of course. With this team, I think the top two wide receiver roles are spoken for, barring injury. So I would not select Burden with the expectation of him doing anything in 2025.
| RECEIVERS PICKED IN FIRST HALF OF SECOND ROUND | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Pk | No | Yards | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2016 | Michael Thomas, N.O. | 47 | 92 | 1137 | 12.4 | 9 | 259.7 | 7 |
| 2024 | Ladd McConkey, LAC | 34 | 82 | 1149 | 14.0 | 7 | 240.9 | 14 |
| 2020 | Tee Higgins, Cin. | 33 | 67 | 908 | 13.6 | 6 | 196.6 | 28 |
| 2019 | Deebo Samuel, S.F. | 36 | 57 | 802 | 14.1 | 3 | 191.1 | 31 |
| 2016 | Sterling Shepard, NYG | 40 | 65 | 683 | 10.5 | 8 | 184.4 | 36 |
| 2022 | Christian Watson, G.B. | 34 | 41 | 611 | 14.9 | 7 | 164.1 | 42 |
| 2020 | Laviska Shenault, Jac. | 42 | 58 | 600 | 10.3 | 5 | 157.1 | 46 |
| 2021 | Elijah Moore, NYJ | 34 | 43 | 538 | 12.5 | 5 | 138.2 | 50 |
| 2018 | Courtland Sutton, Den. | 40 | 42 | 704 | 16.8 | 4 | 136.3 | 50 |
| 2018 | Christian Kirk, Ari. | 47 | 43 | 590 | 13.7 | 3 | 123.5 | 58 |
| 2015 | Dorial Green-Beckham, Ten. | 40 | 32 | 549 | 17.2 | 4 | 112.9 | 59 |
| 2024 | Keon Coleman, Buff. | 33 | 29 | 556 | 19.2 | 4 | 111.5 | 71 |
| 2015 | Devin Funchess, Car. | 41 | 31 | 473 | 15.3 | 5 | 108.3 | 65 |
| 2018 | Dante Pettis, S.F. | 44 | 27 | 467 | 17.3 | 5 | 103.5 | 71 |
| 2020 | Michael Pittman, Ind. | 34 | 40 | 503 | 12.6 | 1 | 98.9 | 80 |
| 2020 | KJ Hamler, Den. | 46 | 30 | 381 | 12.7 | 3 | 90.1 | 88 |
| 2023 | Jonathan Mingo, Car. | 39 | 43 | 418 | 9.7 | 0 | 84.8 | 81 |
| 2017 | Zay Jones, Buff. | 37 | 27 | 316 | 11.7 | 2 | 70.6 | 87 |
| 2022 | Wan'Dale Robinson, NYG | 43 | 23 | 227 | 9.9 | 1 | 51.6 | 116 |
| 2017 | Curtis Samuel, Car. | 40 | 15 | 115 | 7.7 | 0 | 32.9 | 126 |
| 2024 | Ja'Lynn Polk, N.E. | 37 | 12 | 87 | 7.3 | 2 | 32.7 | 129 |
| 2015 | Devin Smith, NYJ | 37 | 9 | 115 | 12.8 | 1 | 26.5 | 142 |
| 2025 | Jayden Higgins, Hou. | 34 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2025 | Luther Burden, Chi. | 39 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan