School: Missouri
Year: Jr
Position: WR

Physical Attributes

• Height: 5-11
• Weight: 205
• RAS: DNC
• 40 Time: 4.42

Rankings

• Joe’s Ranking: 6.6
• Consensus Position Rank: 4
• My Position Ranking: 6
• Difference in Ranking: -2
• Tier: 4
• Projected Round: 3

Games Watched

• Florida ’23
• South Carolina ’24
• Texas A&M ’24

Ryan’s Notes

Positives

• Burden is a speedster with acceleration he achieves through a dangerous low action driving gate that pushes upfield way before you think for a guy who’s barely 6ft.
• Luther can high point the ball immensely well with timing and a strong leap, he didn’t test which tells me he likely didn’t have the numbers to match the film but when it comes to catching the ball in perfect timing at it’s azimuth, no test can account for that anyway.
• His 4.41 forty time is legit and it shows on paper as he forces safeties into poor angles that underestimate how far he can push them.
• He’s got a nasty cut and has plenty of burst off his backfoot to be able to expose creases.
• I like his ability with the ball in his hands but he’s not a dynamic threat, it’s more like if you take a bad angle on him, he’s going to make you pay especially as he’s got good contact balance that can push off weaker tackle attempts to extend the play like he did against Florida.
• He can stop on a dime and this helps him send defenders sailing past him on tackle attempts on the sideline.
• LB3 has reliable hands and a wide catch radius, his hands are small though which could be a concern going forwards.
• He’s tough as nails and can absorb contact well using his thicker frame to bounce lighter corners off him, he gets up right away from any hit which is a plus for someone who’s going to be punished by late arriving safeties on deep balls.
• His best tape is certainly when teams play with a condensed formation and have him run a slot fade, this is not only his best route as his inside stem draws corners in but he has mastered the timing to sail right past the defenders back hip and with his speed it’s a matter of layering the ball to fall into the space in front of him or firing back shoulder and he can bring in both types with ease.

Negatives

• Missouri used him in a variety of ways by manufacturing touches for their star man but for me he didn’t excel in these concepts.
• I’d worry about him being limited to a speedster role especially as he’s not got the kind of height to challenge man coverage when coming back to the ball.
• His route running is average at best, he does little to disguise where he is going and his hips tend to solely point to where he is going. He rounds off his footwork unless making speed cuts and it’s hard to see this being good enough at the next level.

Ryan’s Summary

Burden has some exciting traits however I see his profile as being overrated due to some big games against poor defenses, he tended to go missing against playoff quality opponents as they couldn’t get away with the gimmicky methods of getting him the ball and the line couldn’t hold up against a proper pass rush. He projects as a Z receiver who can keep the defense wide with his motion experience and stretch them vertically but that on its own is not enough for a premium pick without other explosive qualities. His lack of route running skills means he’ll have to be schemed open against the high volume of man match or zone principles he’ll see in the NFL and with the increased use of Quarters I’m not sure I see him garnering success and that puts a ceiling on his stock in my opinion.