Chicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden made headlines prior to the Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers by stating that the vibe that head coach Ben Johnson gave to the team was to make the Packers want to quit.
Bears receiver Luther Burden looks bad during loss to Green Bay
"He wants to beat them really bad, like everyone else in the room, like every Chicago fan. Beat them real bad, and make them quit," stated Burden in the lead-up to the game.
His comments caught the attention of players in the Packers locker room. So, after the Packers beat the Bears 31-7, linebacker Zaire Franklin had a statement for Burden.
"He quit today. He didn't wanna play no more," said Franklin.
The hits kept coming, too. NBA player Anthony Davis chimed in on social media, which drew a response from the former second-round pick.
Burden responded by saying that he led the team in yards, by the way. This obviously was met with some tough backlash. First, he only had 47 yards.
The Bears got blown out and used Burden's words as motivation. Rather than accepting the loss and working to make things better in the coming weeks, Burden is making it known that he had a good game. That can easily be viewed as saying the rest of the team was a letdown, but he was not.
The first five weeks of the 2026 season have not quite been what Bears fans have wanted to see from Burden. He is up from 43 yards per game as a rookie to 53 yards per game this season. However, he is playing much more.
Burden averaged 2.34 yards per route run as a rookie. Now, he is down to 1.81 yards per route run. Some of that can come down to the quarterback play. Caleb Williams started in two games, and one of them was a rain-filled game against the league's best defense.
Case Keenum played in Week 3, Tyson Bagent played in Week 4, and they both played in Week 5. So, that can be tough for a receiver to find a groove. Still, after his rookie season the expectation was for Burden to be a breakout performer. Right now, his most headline worthy moment was talking about the Packers, losing, and then crediting himself for leading the team in yards.
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