Chicago Bears have concern on rookie surface after Ben Johnson’s statement

The Chicago Bears have been without Luther Burden III since rookie minicamp in May. The Missouri Tigers standout suffered a soft tissue injury that kept him out of veteran voluntary minicamp and mandatory minicamp.

He wasn’t practicing during OTAs with Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, and the rest of the Bears’ rookies this week. Following Tuesday’s practice, head coach Ben Johnson gave a couple of updates on Burden that caused a concern about the No. 39 pick in April’s draft before training camp next month.

Luther Burden III is missing a lot

Johnson told reporters Buden was missing “a lot” by spending time with the training staff during practice.

“He misses a lot,” Johnson said of Burden. “I mean, anytime you’re not out there, if you’re in the training room when the rest of the guys are practicing, you’re losing valuable time, valuable time with your coaches, valuable reps with your teammates, the ability to build the trust that we’re talking about. It’s not just the coaching staff having trust in you doing the right thing over and over, but it’s also your teammates.

“They got to be out there. They got to see you do it. They got to know that the guy right, left of them, that they’re going to do the right things and they’re going to make the plays when called upon.”

Johnson said Burden missed an opportunity to get essential reps during OTAs so he could “get better in a hurry” this spring. In an answer to Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Johnson said Burden would be at training camp, but didn’t provide more details.

Mark Grote of 670 The Score was worried by Johnson’s terse answer. Johnson gives long-winded answers to the press about many topics, but chose to just say that Buden would be out there for training camp.

Will Burden practice for the Chicago Bears in July?

Grote isn’t taking Johnson’s statement to be a confirmation that Burden would be practicing at the beginning of training camp.

“Well, the way he (Johnson) said it, though, at the end, yeah, he’ll be there–that doesn’t mean he’ll be practicing,” Grote said on the “Spiegel & Holmes Show” on Tuesday. “When we lay eyes on, when we make the walk to field three and four, and we see stationary bikes lined up, and we’ve all got our binoculars out, I hope I don’t see good old number 87 riding one of those bikes.

“That’s what I fear. No, I don’t think there’s any fake news going on. I just need to hear somebody say, “Oh, yeah, he’s going to be out there. He’s going to be full force.”

Burden, like second-round picks Ozzy Trapilo and Shemar Turner, has not signed his rookie contracts while the front office squabbles about guaranteed money.

The situation surrounding Buden and the Bears appears bizarre in June. Hopefully, Chicago can sort it out in July, and Buden isn’t too far behind to make a meaningful impact as a rookie.

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