Rome Odunze missed the last five games of the season due to a foot injury. But he practiced fully on Friday and was removed from the injury report. Good for the Bears, not as much for Luther Burden.
Burden, the team's second-round pick, had a nice finish to the season. In working on the writeup this week, I felt he was pretty secure as the team's top wideout. But I'm not quite as strong on that right now.
With Odunze at something close to 100 percent, it's possible he'll be the No. 1. He was at the start of the year; it can be debated whether the foot injury was part of his diminished numbers, or if defenses started doing a better job on him before he got hurt. Regardless, it might be tougher for Burden to pay off in a lineup.
Here are Burden's numbers the last four games that Odunze was playing.
| BURDEN WITH ODUNZE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | No | Rec | TD |
| NYG | 3 | 3 | 51 | 0 |
| at Min. | 5 | 3 | 27 | 0 |
| Pit. | 5 | 3 | 46 | 0 |
| at Phi. | 6 | 4 | 33 | 0 |
And here's Burden his last four games of the year, with Odunze inactive.
| BURDEN WITHOUT ODUNZE | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | No | Rec | TD |
| at G.B. | 6 | 4 | 67 | 0 |
| Cle. | 7 | 6 | 84 | 0 |
| at S.F. | 9 | 8 | 138 | 1 |
| Det. | 4 | 3 | 35 | 0 |
Small sample set, and Burden probably just got better some, getting more comfortable and with more of a rapport with Caleb Williams. I think I still like him best this week.
But the gap between 1-2-3 with Burden-Odunze-DJ Moore is small; any one of the three could be best. Factoring in Colston Loveland having a breakout second half, and the fact that Green Bay was weaker defending the run anyway, and I’m wary of counting on a Chicago wideout this week. I will be looking elsewhere to fill the position in lineups this round.
—Andy Richardson