Who Should I Start? Brandon Aiyuk or Luther Burden III

Tuesday, July 22, 2:37 PM

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch says the team is "encouraged" about wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk's (knee) recovery from the ACL and MCL tears that ended his 2024 season last October. However, Aiyuk is "not anywhere close to having a concrete timeline" to return to practices, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic. Aiyuk was placed on the active/physically unable to perform list on Friday, which means he can theoretically be activated at any point this offseason. Nevertheless, previous reporting has indicated Aiyuk is unlikely to be ready to go for the start of the regular season. In his absence, San Francisco will rely more heavily on receivers Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings, Demarcus Robinson, and Jacob Cowing. Rookie fourth-round wideout Jordan Watkins could also get more of a look in camp.

Monday, July 28, 12:19 PM

Chicago Bears rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III (hamstring) is on the field for training camp practice on Monday after he missed the first four practices with a lingering hamstring injury, according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. Burden tweaked his hamstring during minicamp in June, and although the injury wasn't very serious, the Bears played it safe with the second-round wideout and held him out last week at the start of training camp. Chicago will ease the 21-year-old in with the backups at first, but eventually he'll be competing with Olamide Zaccheaus for WR3 duties in 2025 behind DJ Moore and Rome Odunze. The 6-foot, 206-pounder has been compared to Moore and could eventually had a key role in Chicago's passing attack under new head coach Ben Johnson, but for 2025, Burden will be more of a dynasty/keeper asset.