Ben Johnson gives clarity on the Bears rookie WR situation as Luther Burden III’s training camp status becomes clearer
The Chicago Bears opened up training camp on Wednesday and immediately had an issue to address when rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III was not on the field.Burden missed time in OTAs and minicamp earlier in the offseason due to a soft tissue injury in his hamstring. But, when providing updates before camp started on […]
The Chicago Bears opened up training camp on Wednesday and immediately had an issue to address when rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III was not on the field.
Burden missed time in OTAs and minicamp earlier in the offseason due to a soft tissue injury in his hamstring. But, when providing updates before camp started on Tuesday, general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson offered no update.
Before heading out to the practice field on Thursday, the team's head coach finally addressed the status of his rookie play-maker.
"We were very hopeful that he'd be ready to go Day 1, but the soft tissue that he was dealing with there in the spring time lingering a little longer than we wanted," Johnson explained. "So, really, it's day-to-day with him. Hopeful we'll get him out there fairly soon though."
With such an injury at this point in the year, being cautious is the best solution to avoid any further injuries that could go into the season, but at some point urgency comes into play. Burden missed all of the team practices in the spring and has yet to practice with the entire offense on the field, including quarterback Caleb Williams.
Naturally, there's going to be some setbacks for the rookie when it comes to getting on the same page with everyone on offense.
“It’s not just the coaching staff having trust in you, doing the right thing over and over, but it’s also your teammates. They have to be out there. They have to see you do it. They have to know that the guy to the right and the left of them are going to do the right things, and they’re going to make the plays when called upon," Johnson explained back in minicamp. "It’s for everybody. It’s a shame that he got dinged up and missed all that time, because for a young player, it’s really where you where you get the most reps and you can get better in a hurry that way."
Even though he's missed valuable time on the field, Johnson was still encouraged by the work Burden has still been putting in to make sure he doesn't fall too far behind.
"Everything that our training staff is telling us we can do physically with him, we're utilizing," Johnson said. "I know Coach Randle-El's been all over him in meetings, keeping him involved, he's being quizzed non-stop. Our quarterbacks are taking him to the side, whether it's walk-throughs on their own. He's utilizing that time as much as he can, but really there's no substitute for full speed reps."
Burden will miss another day of practice on Thursday and then team will hold two more practices this week on Friday and Saturday before taking a day off on Sunday.
The second-round wide receiver wasn't the only rookie with an availability update. Johnson also had updates for second-round defensive lineman Shemar Turner and fifth-round cornerback Zah Frazier.
"Shemar Turner, he had an ankle [injury] yesterday, so still seeing the severity of that one and how long that will be for his timeline," Johnson added. "The last one is Zah Frazier. He's been excused for some personal reasons.
Getting these three rookies back on the field and integrating with the rest of the team is key, but we all know injuries take time. In the meantime, opportunity rises for other players on the roster to step up.
