There was a ton of hype coming into the season for the Chicago Bears on the back of an exciting new head coach hiring with Ben Johnson. Expected to bring out the best in their former first overall pick quarterback, Caleb Williams, the results have been a revelation almost immediately.
Going into a Week 16 game against the Green Bay Packers, they have a chance to establish themselves as the cream of the crop in the NFC North and maybe the conference as a whole. But this time around, it is the offense that is dealing with a variety of injuries, including star rookie Luther Burden III.
Will Luther Burden Play Against the Packers?
At 10-4, the Bears are leading a brutal NFC North, which is made doubly impressive when taking their woeful 0-2 start into account. Despite battling a ton of injuries on defense, they have found multiple ways to win.
A dominant run game, among the best in the league, and a defense that has made a living off forcing turnovers have allowed them to consistently remain in every game. Add in a quarterback that seems to be getting better every week, and the recipe is clear to see.
However, Williams might have his work cut out for him this week. The last time Chicago faced the Packers, it was a game-sealing interception that ended the game in Week 14. This time around, he’ll want to reverse the script.
Unfortunately, Burden remains a question mark for the game. Ranking 20th on PFSN’s WR Impact, he is the highest among all rookies this season. A slow start to the season has seen a massive turnaround over the second half. In his first seven games, he was at 171 receiving yards, where a 101-yard outing against the Dallas Cowboys was doing a majority of the heavy lifting.
However, since then, he’s completely turned the script around.
Tallying over 300 receiving yards in his last six games, Burden has become a consistent target for the team and a monster in accumulating yards after the catch. However, Week 15 against the Cleveland Browns, where the Bears came away with a dominant 31-3 victory, also came with a caveat.
Early in the encounter, Burden came out with an ankle injury that has continued to ail him all week. Missing practices on both Tuesday and Wednesday, the relatively shorter turnaround to a rare Saturday game might be his undoing.
However, the one sigh of relief for fans in the Windy City has to be that he does not currently have an injury designation for the game. That should likely signal that he will be back on the field against the Packers.
And the Bears need it for sure. With Rome Odunze likely to miss another game after missing the last two with a foot injury, Burden being out could signal despair for the franchise in a game that could help them almost assuredly solidify a playoff spot.
