Wide receiver Luther Burden III’s family doesn’t own a lot of Bears jerseys.
He’s told them to hold off until cut day — not because he’s worried about making the team, but because he wants to change his number once the Bears’ roster is shortened from 90 players to 53.
He didn’t like No. 87 when the Bears assigned it to him after the draft, and he’s not crazy about it now. Harlon Hill wore it for the Bears, and so did Muhsin Muhammad and Tom Waddell, but it doesn’t feel quite right to Burden.
“We’re going to try to change my number,” he said. “Hopefully a single digit.”
Short of the jersey number, though, Burden has looked the part during training camp. Sunday night, he caught three passes for 49 yards, including an out route that he turned up the right sideline, juking past Bills cornerback Dorian Strong for 21 yards.
“If I get too much space,” Burden said, “there’s going to be a problem.”
That’s precisely what the Bears will try to do, particularly early in the rookie’s career — throw him the ball — or hand it off — and watch what he can do.
“He gets the ball in his hands, and he lights up,” receivers coach Antwaan Randle El said. “That’s what I loved about his film.”
The Bears didn’t need a receiver when they used the No. 39 overall pick on the Missouri standout. Their running backs tier had run dry, and new head coach Ben Johnson believed there was no such thing as too many pass-catching weapons.
“It’s a beautiful thing about competition, isn’t it, is that each week, you’ve got to earn what you get on game day,” Johnson said. “That’s exactly how we set this up.”
Burden has the pedigree. A former top 10 national high school recruit, he was one of the best receivers in America as a sophomore, catching 86 balls for 1,212 yards, before catching 61 for 676 as a junior. Missouri didn’t ask him to run complicated routes — three-quarters of his college catches came within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Burden hurt his hamstring during OTAs and started training camp on the sideline. When he returned, he struggled to master every detail of the playbook. That continued Sunday night, when he was shuffling his feet during a snap and was called for an illegal shift, which was declined by the Bills.
Burden has improved the past few weeks, but the Bears still need to trust that he’ll be where they need him to be, on time. He also needs to block well on runs to earn playing time.
“The most important play is the next play,” quarterback Tyson Bagent said. “Especially for a young man like him early in his career. It’s just about banking as many reps as possible. It would be a little bit more strange if there were not mistakes happening.”
The Bears figured Burden would struggle after missing reps in the spring. During training camp, he’s arrived early to meetings and stayed late to try to make up the difference.
“The quarterback wants to know that you’re going to be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there,” Randle El said.
Randle El knows first-hand the value of trust, having played quarterback at Indiana and receiver in the NFL. He still remembers forgetting to run a hot route as a rookie in 2002 and getting Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox sacked.
“That was the ‘Oh my goodness, I don’t trust you no more (moment),’” he said. “It took me a couple of more practices and when we did get it, it was sweet.
“You can’t fool your quarterback.”
In that regard, Burden still has work to do before the season opener in three weeks.
“I’m getting more and more comfortable every day I’m out there,” he said.