Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice: Luther Burden (2025 Fantasy Football)

This is what we’ve been waiting for, fantasy football enthusiasts. The NFL Draft is underway, and we finally get to see where the rookie prospects will launch their professional careers. And NFL Draft landing spots allow us to start to zero in on fantasy football and dynasty rookie draft pick values.

Throughout the draft, we’ll take a closer look at fantasy-relevant prospects, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing their fantasy value in both redraft and dynasty formats. Here’s our dynasty rookie draft advice for Luther Burden.

Let’s dig in.

Fantasy Football Dynasty Rookie Draft Outlook

Fantasy Football Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice

Burden is a very exciting prospect, but I hate this landing spot. The 39th overall pick is totally respectable draft capital, but Burden is somehow easily the lowest-drafted of the three weapons the Bears have added in the last two drafts. Rome Odunze was the ninth-overall pick a year ago, and Chicago added receiving TE Colston Loveland with the 10th-overall pick last night. Once we also consider D.J. Moore, this is an absurdly crowded group of weapons.

Normally, the right move in Dynasty is to fade concerns about crowded landing spots – things change fast in the NFL. But with this many young, highly drafted weapons in one spot (even DJM only just turned 28), it’s hard to see a path for Burden to be a target hog any time soon. On the bright side, this offense should be wheels up with Caleb Williams in year two and Ben Johnson at the helm. Still, with this absurd level of competition, Burden looks more like an early second-round Rookie pick than a late first at this point.

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DBro’s NFL Draft Scouting Report & Player Comp

Scouting Report:

Luther Burden is a quick-twitch underneath slot weapon for offenses. Over the last two seasons, he ran 81.7-85.3% of his routes from the slot. Burden is a dynamic and fun player to watch with the ball in his hands. He can create YAC and yards for himself without needing perfectly blocked screenplays.
Burden’s usage at Missouri was somewhat gimmicky. He was utilized in bunch formations, in motion, with handoffs and with rub routes a ton to create easy releases for him. Yes, the aim for Missouri was to get the ball in his hands in every way possible, but that doesn’t explain away the usage profile.
As a true route runner, Burden is more of a projection than a finished product. With a ton of his usage coming via schemed touches, the reps where Burden was asked to go out there and route guys up were more limited. During his more traditional slot snaps, he was fed a bevy of ins, outs and slot fades. You’ll occasionally see a seam shot in there for good measure.
While Burden might turn out to be a strong route runner because of his electric movement skills, that is only a projection. Stating he is a strong route runner versus the hope he can become a good route runner is a very different conversation. Entering the NFL, most coordinators should expect to integrate him into the offense with some gadgetry. Maybe he hits the ground running as a route technician, but there’s an equally strong chance he doesn’t, and he has to mature in this area with on-the-job training in the NFL.
Burden plays larger than his size would suggest at the catch point. He has that “my ball mentality” and that dawg in him. Burden has a 55.8% contested catch rate over the last two seasons. This skill should help him in the red zone and if he experiences more muddy catch points in the NFL as he matures as a route runner.
Burden is an accomplished punt returner who can offer an NFL team value on special teams. In 2022, he was fifth in the SEC (32nd nationally) in punt return yards and ranked eighth in punt return average (among 66 players with at least 12 punt returns).

Player Comp: Peter Warrick