Bears' Ben Johnson compares Luther Burden III's mentality, approach to one of the NFL's best wide receivers

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson is widely considered one of the top offensive minds in the NFL. He's credited with engineering a significant step forward for last year's Bears offense, obviously, but before that, he was the offensive coordinator in Detroit, where he helped the Lions become one of the best offenses in football. 

During that time, wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown developed into one of the best in the league at his position, catching at least 100 passes for at least 1,100 yards in each of Johnson's three seasons at the helm and earning a monster contract extension that made him among the highest-paid receivers in the league. 

These days, Johnson coaches another receiver who he says has similarities to the Lions' star -- at least in terms of his approach on a day-to-day basis: second-year wideout Luther Burden III. 

"St. Brown in Detroit, who I have a strong affinity for, he plays the game the same way," Johnson said during an interview with FOX32. "I feel that from Luther. I know he wasn't a full-time starter for us a year ago, but the snaps that he did have, he's got that competitive edge and desire to be great."

As Johnson noted, Burden was not a full-time starter for the Bears last season. He wasn't a full-time player at all. Burden started just five of his 15 games and only played 40% of the team's offensive snaps, working behind D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze and even Olamide Zaccheaus for most of the season. Still, he caught 47 passes for 652 yards as a second-round pick. He also finished third in the NFL in yards per route run among the 152 wide receivers who ran at least 100 routes, according to Tru Media. 

That type of efficiency on low volume is typically the kind of thing that leads to a dramatic increase in opportunity in the future, and it's clear that the Bears have big plans for Burden going forward, especially with their coach already comparing his work ethic to that of one of the game's best.

When it comes to playing style and usage, there are some similarities between Burden and St. Brown, but they're certainly not identical players. 

For example, St. Brown (47%) was utilized in the slot more often than Burden (39%), despite the fact that Burden came into the league as primarily a slot receiver at Missouri. Still, just as he was in college, Burden was used primarily as a manufactured-touch player during his rookie season, with 32 of his 60 targets (53%) coming within five yards of the line of scrimmage. For St. Brown, that number was 69 of 172 targets (40%). St. Brown did more work in the intermediate area of the field (56.5% to 37%), while Burden got more downfield usage, with 6 of his 60 targets (10%) coming at least 20 yards past the line of scrimmage, while the same was true of just 6 of St. Brown's 172 targeted passes (3.5%). 

To become the same type of impact player that St. Brown is, Burden will have to expand beyond the all-or-nothing type of usage he had last season. Being able to win and dominate on those intermediate routes is the key to unlocking NFL offenses, and especially an offense like Johnson's that specializes in getting players open in that 10-to-20-yard range. 

St. Brown is already among the best in the league at winning in that area of the field, and that's why he dominates annually. Burden has a lot of talent, but he also has to prove that he can do more than just catch-and-run on designed touches or burn defenses with deep shots as he did on occasion last year. The Bears clearly think he can. The rest of us are waiting with bated breath to find out if they're right.