Bear Digest

How one rookie's earlier absence already negatively affected Bears

Now that rookie second-round Luther Burden is back practicing, it's apparent to coach Ben Johnson the receiver has a lot of catching up to do.
Gene Chamberlain|
Luther Burden blocks while Colston Loveland (84) looks on the background.
Luther Burden blocks while Colston Loveland (84) looks on the background. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Although wide receiver Luther Burden III is practicing again, it's anything but an ideal situation for the Bears.

Coach Ben Johnson said prior to Tuesday's morning practice that the rookie second-round pick has a lot of catching up to do.

In fact, he described exactly how far behind Burden is after missing OTAs and minicamp, as well as the first block of practices at training camp because of a soft tissue injury.

It even became most apparent when they were going through walk-through as offense was being installed.

"It shows up already," Johnson said. "I mean, we were in the walk-through yesterday afternoon and the misalignments—we have to re-huddle, we have to start it all over again.

"He's a little bit behind right now."

The only solution is to get Burden involved in practice as much as they can at full speed and it's a process they're now beginning.

"We're going to start ramping him in there," Johnson said. "He'll get some team reps slowly but surely. And we've got a number of guys that kind of started low and now their volume starts getting bigger every day."

First pick Colston Loveland was one of those, but the tight end's participation level is now where it needs to be. The Bears can only hope Burden shows the same rapid progress as Loveland is impressing already at the move tight end spot.

Loveland made an outstanding catch Monday but something else he did impressed Johnson even more.

"You cant gauge until you get him on the field the football instincts and it showed up rom the get-go," Johnson said. "He had a particular block the other day where the defensive end looked to spin out of it and he was able to anticipate that and was able to stay on top of it.

"Those are things that reall stand out to a coaching staff that maybe if you're just a regular bystander that you might not see. It's realy encouraging when you look at a younger player like that and the growth that he's going to be able to have the more reps that he gets."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.