Luther Burden Camp Update — August 23: Recovery on Track, Reps Still Lost
2026 NFL Season · Sunday, Aug 23
Burden stayed out all week as expected with his groin injury, and the only sourced read on him was a good one — Rome Odunze saying the recovery is going well. The Week One target stands. The August reps he was supposed to convert keep passing to others.
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Quiet week for Luther Burden, by design of the diagnosis. He remained out with the groin injury that ended his preseason, missing Thursday's joint practice in Cincinnati and Saturday's game, per Jason Lieser at the Chicago Sun-Times, and the one fresh read on his progress came secondhand and positive — Rome Odunze, per Mike Moraitis at Sports Illustrated: "I know his recovery is going well, so excited to get him back out there." Nothing in the week's reporting moved the expected return for Week One against Carolina on September thirteenth.
The cost of the absence stayed visible in the work he wasn't doing. The first-team receiver reps in the week's only starter action — a joint practice against Cincinnati and one game series — went to Odunze, Colston Loveland, Kalif Raymond and Kaden Davis, per Michal Dwojak at Shaw Local and Larry Mayer at the team's website.
Back in June we doubted the schedule more than the player — a role that needs to roughly double from four targets a game — and a lost August means the doubling now has to happen without a single competitive summer rep. Nothing this week made the health story worse, and nothing made the opportunity story better.
What to watch: whether Burden gets back to any practice work before cutdown on Sunday, August thirtieth, and whether the Week One expectation survives the first game-week injury report. We'll check after cut day.
_Data via nflverse._
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