In a loaded position group with lots of talent, Luther Burden III enters his third season at Missouri as the country’s top returning receiver. Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, Oregon’s Evan Stewart, Texas’ Isaiah Bond and Kentucky’s Barion Brown are some — but not all — of the top returning players that will be challengers for the WR 1 this season.
Burden has lived up to the hype coming out of high school as 247Sports’ No. 2 wideout in the 2022 class and the second-highest rated recruit to even attend Missouri. After a solid but unspectacular true freshman season, he went off last season. Burden hauled in 86 balls for more than 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns while only dropping four passes on the 2023 campaign.
A dynamic playmaker who is fun to watch because Missouri forces him to get multiple touches per game by feeding their playmaker the ball, Burden catches screens and nakeds as well as jet sweeps and reverses. They are all easy ways to let playmakers make plays.
