It took an all-around team effort from the Chicago Bears in Sunday's comeback win over the New York Giants. The Bears' offense disappeared completely at times during the victory, which included scoring only seven points in the first half. Fortunately, the unit found its next gear as the game went on, leading to Chicago outscoring New York 14-3 in the fourth quarter.
Although improving to 6-3 on the year is great, the Bears can't ignore their obvious offensive issues — especially when it comes to the aerial attack. As second-year stud Rome Odunze was the only Chicago wide receiver to have a noteworthy performance (six catches for 86 yards and a touchdown), Olamide Zaccheaus did everything but help the offense, catching just one of his four targets while dropping two balls, per Pro Football Focus.
With Zaccheaus being a massive detriment this weekend, the Bears have an obvious WR issue they need to address, which they can accomplish by breaking the shackles off rookie receiver Luther Burden III.
Bears Need Luther Burden More Than Ever as Olamide Zaccheaus Falters
Burden, 21, seemed prime for a big role in the Bears' offense when they drafted him 39th overall in April. The ex-Missouri Tiger was coming off a terrific run in the SEC, and the hope was that he could replicate his success under an offensive-minded guru like head coach Ben Johnson in the Windy City.
Instead, Burden has flown under the radar, which was highlighted in Sunday's win. Despite impressive catching three targets for 51 receiving yards combined with Zaccheaus' struggles, those were the only targets that the rookie WR saw all game. He's now up to only 18 targets through eight games, resulting in 16 catches for 222 yards and a touchdown.
One would think that an 88.9% catch rate would earn Burden more opportunities with Johnson & Co., but that hasn't been in case. He still has as many games with one target (4) as with multiple opportunities. That's extremely frustrating to watch for Bears fans, especially when the team keeps turning back to Zaccheaus despite having every reason not to.
Luther Burden's Usage Is a Part of a Bigger Concern
As frustrating as Burden's usage has been, it isn't as if the Bears' offense has been operating smoothly. Johnson hasn't exactly been handling rookie tight end Colston Loveland all that well (for the most part), running backs D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai's performances have been up and down, and there's also Rome Odunze's father, who will seemingly throw a fit every time his son isn't given 10 targets.
Speaking of which, an expanded workload helped Odunze learn on the fly in his rookie year. He saw 5.9 targets per game, which is more than double what Burden is seeing after Week 10 (2.3).
With so much uncertainty in the Bears' offensive plans, there's no harm in throwing Burden into the fire to see what he can do. As a Day 2 pick, Chicago obviously had big plans for him when they announced his selection nearly seven months ago. Few options are consistently working at the moment, so Johnson's staff may as well see if Burden can thrive in a bigger role.
Fortunately, Week 11's clash with the Minnesota Vikings could help the Bears' rookie out. Before Sunday's loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Vikings had allowed an average of 256.0 passing yards in their last three games, suggesting that the door is open for Burden to pop off. Fellow Chicago WR DJ Moore failing to catch any of his four targets on Sunday could also incentivize Chicago to spread the ball around more often.
At the end of the day, the Bears are clearly doing Burden a disservice until something changes. Hopefully, Zaccheaus' bust of a performance was the last thing Chicago needed to finally break out the changes that've held their first-year playmaker down.