Life After DJ Moore Sets Up Luther Burden III For Breakout Season
Despite the D.J. Moore trade, Luther Burden's rookie stats show he's poised to dominate as the Bears' new WR1 in 2026.
Video Transcript
Grant Bricker for Bears on Roundtable.
The Chicago Bears are now down a receiver after trading, D.J.
Moore to the Buffalo Bills for a second-round pick.
In excha-- in Moore-- the Bears sent Moore and a fifth-round pick to Buffalo in exchange, as there is now a hole in the Ben Johnson's offense as that kind of go-to YAC receiver.
But luckily, I think there's already someone on the roster who could fill that role quite nicely in Luther Burden.
Burden proved, improved a lot throughout the season and showed that he, can not only fulfill that, kinda YAC role on Ben Johnson's offense, but that he could be a long-range threat as well as he caught, multiple long touchdowns in games against, the likes of the Dallas Cowboys, and we also saw it later in the year against the San Francisco 49ers, where he really torched opposing secondaries.
There are also some really intriguing stats via Warren Sharp that, show just how good Burden was at various points throughout the year.
Since two thousand and fifteen, no one has had more, yards per route run than Burden, Burden as a rookie.
Burden, had a better rookie season in that regard compared to res-- to, really good receivers like A.J.
Brown, Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Ja'Marr Chase, and other top receivers around the league.
He also led, all Bears receivers and tight ends in stats like EPA per route, YAC per recep-- per reception, and various others, and was even in the top ten for some of those stats compared to, one hundred and two other, receivers and tight ends from around the league who had at least fifty targets or more.
I really think that, an off-season of improvement and another year in this Ben Johnson system will do Burden a lot of good as he, continues to improve as a receiver in this league.
As a whole, Burden put up some very sol-- put up, some solid numbers that give you a lot of hope for, for his future.
He had, over six hundred receiving yards and two touchdowns.
I believe he was about fourth or fifth on the team in receiving yards, so he definitely, showed what he can do and now has a chance to do even more with, Moore out of the, the receiving room.
And, I think he could have a breakout season and potentially challenge Rome Odunze for the wide receiver o-one role on this, in this Bears receiving corps.
