Fantasy Football Player Notes

Luther Burden steps into a much larger workload in 2026. Last year (including the playoffs), Burden had only five games in which he played at least 53% of the snaps. In those games, he had a 15.5% target share and 61.2 receiving yards per game, which is concerning, but his per-route metrics were outstanding, with 2.30 yards per route run, a 23.6% first-read share, and 0.120 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). There's a lot of projection for Burden's 2026 season. Last year, he was stellar overall per-route with a 26% target per route run rate (11th), 2.83 yards per route run (third), 0.117 first downs per route run (12th), and 0.56 fantasy points per route run (eighth, among all wideouts with at least 200 routes). The hope and hype centered around Burden is that he can turn that small-sample hyper-efficiency into a marvelous season with a full-time workload. That could happen this year, and it sends him screaming up the weekly rankings for wide receivers, but Burden also has Rome Odunze and Colston Loveland to contend with for the top spot in the Chicago pecking order. Burden is best viewed as a WR2 with upside.

Rome Odunze was on his way to a breakout season before he sustained a foot fracture. In Weeks 1-12, he was the WR21 in fantasy points per game despite dealing with a 68.3% catchable target rate (96th out of 127 qualifying receivers). During that stretch of games, among that sample of receivers, he was 21st in target share (22.4%), 20th in receiving yards per game (59.4), 27th in yards per route run (1.95), 25th in first-read share (27.2%), and 16th in first-downs per route run (0.107, per Fantasy Points Data). Foot injuries always scare me, and Odunze has talked openly this offseason about the "new normal" of playing, planting, and running on his foot. The bum foot could crush him in 2026 if it remains a problem, but Odunze is appropriately priced in drafts as a WR3 with WR2 upside, with the risk being baked in.