Rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III’s family doesn’t own a lot of Bears jerseys.
He has 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 gave it to him after the draft, and he’s not crazy about it now. Harlon Hill wore it for the Bears. So did Muhsin Muhammad and Tom Waddle. 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, however, Burden has looked the part during training camp. On 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 with him, particularly early in his career: throw him — or hand him — the ball and watch what he can do.
‘‘He gets the ball in his hands, and he lights up,’’ wide receivers coach Antwaan Randle El said. ‘‘That’s what I loved about his film.’’
The Bears didn’t need a wide receiver when they used the No. 39 overall pick on Burden, but head coach Ben Johnson doesn’t believe there is any such thing as too many pass-catching weapons.
‘‘It’s a beautiful thing about competition, isn’t it, 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 high school recruit nationally, he was one of the best wide receivers in America as a sophomore at Missouri, catching 86 passes for 1,212 yards. He then caught 61 passes for 676 yards 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 a hamstring during organized team activities and started 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, a penalty the Bills declined.
‘‘The most important play is the next play, especially for a young man like him early in his career,’’ backup quarterback Tyson Bagent said. ‘‘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 camp, he has arrived early to meetings and stayed late to try to make up the difference.
He has improved in the last few weeks, but the Bears still need to trust that he’ll be where they need him to be when they need him to be there. He also needs to block well on runs to earn playing time.
Randle El knows firsthand the value of trust, having played quarterback at Indiana and wide receiver in the NFL. He 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.