Draft Profile: Luther Burden III
Wide Receiver, Missouri
5’11, 208 lbs.
Projected: First Round
As of now, it is impossible for me to keep track of all of the “rumors” of the players that the Steelers are interested in. It seems like every day the Steelers are linked to some new player. They’ve called teams. Expressed interest. Made calls. Got “asking prices”. Sure, the team is probably interested in Justin Jefferson, AJ Brown, Ja’Marr Chase- but yeah that’s not going to happen. Omar Khan is doing his due diligence and making calls, sure. But that’s what GMs do. That’s their job.
So until there is something more concrete, I am going to continue to assume that wide receiver is the biggest need on the Steelers roster. That is aside from quarterback which needs to be addressed in free agency. Even what is their biggest need is debatable because this team has A LOT of them. But after seeing last season’s wide receiver room this is still the number one concern in my eyes.
George Pickens needs a partner. I’m not sure that a ton of defensive scheming was necessary this past season: Double Pickens, pick on the young offensive line. Ready, break! Calvin Austin did step up but everyone else was pretty much just a guy. There was definitely not anyone that made defensive coordinators panic. One receiver in this draft that might have the ability to do just that is Luther Burden III.
Strengths:
Burden explodes off the line of scrimmage and displays excellent acceleration. He’s very shifty and can get to full speed out of a break very quickly. His lateral quickness is unbelievable, and he can move with a video game-like quality. This makes Burden very dangerous in open space and he is a YAC guy who can take it to the house from anywhere. He has good ball tracking and plucks the ball out of the air. Burden has a strong build- similar to a running back which means he can be used in a variety of ways. As a receiver, out of the backfield, on sweeps, and as a punt/kick returner.
Weaknesses:
Luther Burden III is not the tallest receiver and most of his plays were out of the slot. A lot of his catches in college came in the short to intermediate range, although he has shown the ability to play outside so this may have been a scheme issue. He is not a blocker. Burden depended a lot on his raw athleticism in college and may have initial difficulty with fast and physical NFL corners. He’ll have to fine tune some of the nuances of his route running. Burden also sometimes initiates contact when he does not need to, which could impact his long-term availability at the next level. He did have some drop issues early in his college career, especially in traffic, but he seemed to have improved in this area over the course of last season.
How he fits:
Any player that is a threat to score whenever they touch the ball would be a fit in Pittsburgh. After the 2023 college season ended, Burden III was considered by many to be the early favorite to be the top wide receiver drafted. If Burden can live up to his potential, defenses will not be able to focus solely on George Pickens which could open up the offense. Now I don’t know if the offense would be willingly opened up from a coaching perspective, but we will see. There is the fact that if the Steelers did draft Burden with the 21st pick, you would have Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson, and Luther Burden III all at 6’0 and under. This could translate to having a lot of options in the slot but still not having an outside, number two receiver. Would this essentially put them back at the drawing board?
Player Comp:
The easy choice here is Deebo Samuel based upon the different ways both he and Burden are used in the offense. I’m going to go a little bit different route and say Jalen Reagor– at least the way he was supposed to fit into the NFL. Both are compact, strong, and very agile wide receivers. In watching tape, I believe that Burden is a little more shifty and has slightly better acceleration than Deebo; but the latter is the stronger runner. Reagor was the guy that was supposed to be the threat to score whenever he touched the ball, which is why I am using him as a player comp. They were both the same size coming out of college.
Luther Burden III is an electrifying athlete. Creative offensive coordinators could create several ways to get him the ball and utilize his spend and playmaking ability as a weapon. In other words, I’m not sure how this would work with our current regime. They seem to like the run, run, pass approach in an attempt to grind out wins. Would Burden improve their roster? Absolutely. The argument can be made however that the Steelers would be better off finding a traditional number two wide receiver and utilizing Calvin Austin III or Roman Wilson in the slot. Either way the Steelers need to find another legitimate weapon at wide receiver so this will be an interesting debate leading up to the draft.
