Luther Burden
vs Lamar Jackson

“Burden has played 55% of his snaps from the slot, but he has been targeted on only 12.5% of his slot routes (0.75 yards per route), compared with 32% of his routes outside (2.84 yards per route). The Eagles obviously have awesome boundary corners in Quinyon Mitchell and Riq Woolen , so it is hard to play through Burden's splits outside. Philadelphia has allowed 10 catches for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns to slot receivers so far, which likely plays a role in adding Kenny Moore this week and potentially giving them more flexibility to move Cooper DeJean around more like they did last week.”

“Luther Burden steps into a much larger workload in 2026. Last year (including the playoffs), Burden had only five games in which he played at least 53% of the snaps. In those games, he had a 15.5% target share and 61.2 receiving yards per game, which is concerning, but his per-route metrics were outstanding, with 2.30 yards per route run, a 23.6% first-read share, and 0.120 first downs per route run.”

“Luther Burden was just as buzzy as Parker Washington within the fantasy community this summer. Like Washington, Burden did some things late last season that whetted our appetite for a full breakout in 2026.”

“Luther Burden of the Chicago Bears is my pick for league-winner at receiver. With DJ Moore now in Buffalo, Burden steps into a much larger role alongside Rome Odunze and should command a significant target share in an improving Bears offense.”

“Shifting Burden into this alpha role makes perfect sense. Burden is an elite YAC monster, and Ben Johnson would use him as an offensive weapon all over the formation. In a record-breaking year, Burden’s ceiling isn’t just a low-end WR1 – it is an overall top-5 standard/PPR finish fueled by manufactured touches and explosive chunk plays.”

“The hype around Burden has gotten out of control. He averaged fewer PPR fantasy points per game than Theo Wease Jr. last season (8.6 vs. 8.5).”

“Burden averaged 13.9 YPC, which is high when considering his low aDOT. That's attributable to the fact that Burden was a YAC machine in 2025, averaging 7.1 YAC per reception, which ranked 3rd in the NFL among WRs.”

“Burden finished 2025 with a paltry 12.8% target share on the season. This number obviously grew throughout the season, as his snap share increased, but that's still an uninspiring number. Better, though, were his Team Reception % (16%), Team Receiving Yards % (19%), and team WR Points % (26.9%), which shows how efficient Burden was when targeted.”

“In both of his matchups with the Cowboys, Jackson has run for 181 yards and a TD.”

“Lamar Jackson has a massive ceiling in what projects to be a high-scoring matchup against the Cowboys. Dallas was getting torched by Jayden Daniels before he went down with an injury, which bodes well for Jackson’s outlook in this spot. With his ability to make plays through the air and on the ground, Jackson has the potential to put up a monster performance here.”

“But Jackson has looked far more like his electric self at the start of this season than he did in 2025. By the end of the season, he should be right up next to (OK, maybe behind) Allen as a top-tier fantasy quarterback.”

“Unfortunately, Jackson had arguably his worst season as a starter in 2025. He missed four games because of injury and played part of the year hurt. The superstar finished as the QB14 on a points-per-game basis among qualifying quarterbacks, averaging 19.8 fantasy points per contest. However, I expect a bounce-back season for Jackson, especially with Declan Doyle taking over as Baltimore’s offensive coordinator.”

“If Lamar Jackson can bounce back, Henry could inch back closer to his 2024 production (RB4 in fantasy points per game).”

“With plenty of time to recover from last season, Jackson is a ticking time bomb for fantasy production.”

“Jackson's 2025 performance was marred by injury and a subpar level of play (by his standards). Therefore, while he has tremendous leverage by virtue of the restructure and the $84.34MM cap number it created for 2027, he may want to come to the negotiating table on the heels of a better season.”

“Jackson mentioned that Doyle is running a completely different system from what Todd Monken deployed last season, while there are some concepts from what Greg Roman ran in 2022. Jackson expects more "explosiveness" this season, and Doyle is proving to be a very creative playcaller. "I feel like there's going to be a lot of explosiveness this year," Jackson said. "The way Declan calls plays and his creativity with his mind — how detailed he is — it's mind-blowing. I'm excited."”

“It was only a season ago that we saw Jackson finish as the QB1 with 425 fantasy points. That was his second time surpassing 400 fantasy points, a threshold that Allen has never exceeded.”

“Over his final eight starts, Jackson was the QB29 in fantasy points per game (11.9). He completed just 57.6% of his passes (28th) with 7 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. He had the highest inaccurate throw rate in the league over that span (15.8%).”