Luther Burden's Targets Rise, Playing Time Doesn't

By Matt Schauf | Updated on Sat, Nov 29 2025 2:58 AM UTC

Rookie WR Luther Burden III made a team-high 4 receptions on a modest passing day for the Bears against Philadelphia. He tied WR Rome Odunze and TE Colston Loveland for the team lead with six targets and took his 4 catches for 33 yards. Loveland and TE Cole Kmet were the only other Bears to catch more than two balls.

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

The six targets marked a season high for Burden, and his 4 catches tied his best mark. That followed two straight weeks of five targets on elevated route rates.

But Sunday's game didn't find his actual role growing.

Burden ran a route on 57.5% of Chicago's dropbacks against the Eagles. That fell right in line with his rates of 60.5% and 61.1% the previous two weeks.

As he showed at Philly, that's enough to put him in the mix for the target lead in any single game. But it's not enough to make Burden playable outside deep leagues.

Chicago enjoyed an especially productive rushing day, which led to 47 carries vs. 36 pass attempts. That heavy a run lean won't occur often, but the 36 pass attempts were above Williams' season average of 32.7 entering the day. So the entire offense benefited from high volume.

The next three weeks hold tough defenses in the Packers, Browns, and Packers again.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.