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Bears veteran wide receiver DJ Moore.
Chicago Bears starting wide receiver DJ Moore knows there are valuable things that his rookie teammate, Luther Burden III, is missing while he nurses his hamstring injury on the sideline in the early days of 2025 training camp.
“Probably just the speed of the game [and] route concepts,” Moore said Friday when asked about the most important things Burden is missing while he is out with his injury. “Those are the two that go hand-in-hand that you need to be out there.”
Burden is expected to compete for the No. 3 receiver job in the Bears’ rotation behind Moore and Rome Odunze, but he has been unable to practice since early May when he sustained a hamstring injury in rookie minicamp. While the team had hoped he would be ready in time for the start of camp, he has stayed sidelined for the first four days.
As far as the mental side of Burden’s preparation goes, though, Moore validated that the second-round rookie is keeping his head in the game as he works back to full strength.
“He’s studying,” Moore said. “He gets called on in meetings, he knows his plays, so that’s a good thing. And when he gets out there, he’s just got to be ready to go.”
Luther Burden Has ‘Day-to-Day’ Status With Injury
As Bears head coach Ben Johnson explained last week, Burden is “day-to-day” with his hamstring injury, but he did not seem overly concerned about it lasting long term.
“I’m hopeful it’s just a few days,” Johnson said Thursday. “We’re saying day-to-day right now. Sometimes, those soft-tissue [injuries], you can’t predict. Some guys take longer than others. Like I said, we were hopeful, but we’ll keep on trucking along.”
In the meantime, Johnson said he has both his coaches and his quarterbacks putting in extra time with Burden on the side of camp activities to keep him from falling behind.
“Everything that our training staff is telling us we can do physically with him, we’re utilizing him,” Johnson said. “I know Coach [Antwaan] Randal El is all over him in meetings, keeping him involved. He’s being quizzed. Nonstop, our quarterbacks are taking him to the side, whether it’s walkthroughs on their own. He’s utilizing that time as much as he can, but there’s really no substitute for full-speed reps.”
Luther Burden Has High Potential Once He Returns
The Bears have no choice but to be patient with Burden’s hamstring while it heals, but it is easy to understand why they are eager to get him back on the field, given his upside.
Burden broke onto the scene in 2023 when he caught 86 passes for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns for Missouri, drawing enough praise from NFL scouts that some started to consider him a likely first-round prospect. After a muted junior season in which Burden had to endure the hiccups of a worsened Tigers offense, though, he began to fall down the 2025 draft board in favor of other wide receivers, such as Arizona’s Tet McMillan.
Even still, Burden’s slide to the Bears at No. 39 overall came unexpected. The drop in his production in 2024 did not change the fact that he is a fluid playmaker the speed, acceleration and ball-tracking ability to pose a serious threat as an after-catch weapon.
Ultimately, the Bears felt strongly enough about Burden that they selected him, despite having two long-term starters in place in Moore and Odunze. That speaks volumes about not only Burden but also Johnson’s influence over the roster-building process.
