Bears WR Luther Burden exits rookie minicamp practice with potential injury
Chicago Bears rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III left Saturday's practice at rookie minicamp with a potential injury to his midsection.
According to 670 the Score, Burden caught a deep pass down the sidelines near the end of practice and landed awkwardly on his side.
After practice, Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle didn't comment on Burden's status noting head coach Ben Johnson would provide injury updates. Johnson wasn't available for comment on Saturday after speaking to the media on Friday.
Burden was selected with the 39th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. He was expected to be a first-round pick but fell to Chicago in the seventh round.
The Bears are scheduled to have one final practice on Sunday, where Johnson isn't expected to speak.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears WR Luther Burden exits practice with potential injury
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For Kelly, it is all about getting over the hump this season and leading the LSU Tigers back to where the program should be. That begins with the first game of the year on the road against the Clemson Tigers, who will also be extremely talented this season under tenured head coach Dabo Swinney. LSU has dropped five consecutive season openers, including three under Kelly. If he wants to get over the hump and keep the Tigers fanbase happy, it all starts with winning one game at a time. Josh Heupel, Tennessee (A) Possibly one of the greatest quarterback developers in the conference, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel does not get enough credit for the work he has done with the Volunteers over the last three years. After defeating Alabama for the second time in three years and reaching the 2024 College Football Playoff, there is no denying that Heupel is one of the elite coaches in the SEC and the country. Everything will be earned by Heupel's Vols this season, however. 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Billy Napier, Florida (B-) When a coach inherits a program like the Florida Gators, the expectations of success are to be competing for titles. For the last couple of years under head coach Billy Napier, the program has been lucky just to reach six wins, much to the disappointment of the entire fanbase. He holds a 19-19 record with just eight conference wins since he was hired in 2022. There were signs of a potential turnaround at the end of last season, as the Gators claimed huge victories over Ole Miss and the school's first bowl game win since 2019 against Tulane in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl. Napier has one of the most athletic quarterbacks in DJ Lagway returning for his sophomore year in Gainesville. The potential of the roster could secure Napier another season, but if the Gators are not able to get back to winning more than six games, the writing could be written on the wall for his tenure at Florida. Brent Venables, Oklahoma (B-) Brent Venables' third year at the helm for the Oklahoma Sooners was filled with ups and downs. Positives? The program stunned the Crimson Tide in Norman last season, which provided Venables with one of his biggest victories of his head coaching career so far. Negatives? Inconsistency on both sides of the ball and poor coaching in moments led to a 6-7 record and a 21-20 loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. Point being, the Sooners have not been able to break the glass ceiling and reach the apex of college football in a few years. Venables' decisions, specifically involving the quarterback position, put the program in a bad position throughout the entirety of last season. Now, it is time for Venables to face the music and take the talented roster back to success. If he is not able to achieve such a feat, we could see the end of the Venables era before we know it. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt (C+) If there is one coach on this list who deserves his flowers for what they have been able to do at the helm, it is Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea. With the helpful addition of signal-caller Diego Pavia last season, Lea helped lead the Dores to a historic win over No. 1 Alabama and the school's first bowl game victory since 2013, in a 35-27 win over Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl. Is there more magic left in the tank in Nashville? That is still to be seen. However, Lea has done an excellent job establishing a talented roster in preparation of the upcoming season, including retaining Pavia for one more year. The defensive unit still needs some work, but SEC teams should beware of the Dores in 2025. Arkansas, Sam Pittman (C-) The Sam Pittman era at Arkansas has been anything but spectacular. 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Usually, this is a team that most fear playing, especially on the road. That has not been the case lately, however. Lebby has been tasked with revamping a program that has gone through more hardships and adversity than any other in the conference, bar none. He has a sneaky-good offensive roster, with an experienced group of transfers blocking for the returning gunslinger, Blake Shapen. It might not be this year, but Lebby will find a way to get the Dawgs back to complete form in the next couple of years. Mark Stoops, Kentucky (D) Finally, we reach the bottom of the list with Kentucky's Mark Stoops. Well, we have some work to do. The complete decline of this program has been one of the most disappointing things to watch. Have you ever felt such dissatisfaction when your favorite movie starts to end? Sometimes, you almost just want to restart the movie entirely because you love it so much. That is how it feels watching Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats. This is going to be a rough season in Lexington, and it will likely be one that the program will want to forget forever. Stoops is on one of the hottest seats in America, which will likely ignite into a wildfire if he is not able to turn this ship around. Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
After hitting ‘rock bottom,' Braves can still salvage their season – if they snap out of it
The Atlanta Braves are 27-34, 11 games back in the NL East, 1 1/2 games behind rebuilding Washington and only 3 1/2 ahead of lowly Miami. After their latest misstep, a blown six-run lead in the ninth inning Thursday against Arizona, their broadcaster and Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine said, 'If you were looking for rock bottom, this might be it.' Advertisement The tendency, in this age of overreaction, is to project the Braves as trade-deadline sellers and start listing potential landing spots for designated hitter Marcell Ozuna. But through the same date a year ago, the New York Mets were 27-35 and the Houston Astros 28-35, records nearly identical to the Braves' current mark. Both teams finished with nearly 90 wins and reached the postseason. If the Braves fail to ignite, it will be fair to question whether they lost too much of their fabric with the free-agent departures of first baseman Freddie Freeman, shortstop Dansby Swanson and left-hander Max Fried over a four-year span. 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Their replacement of third-base coach Matt Tuiasosopo with former manager Fredi Gonzalez on Monday was not a warning shot at manager Brian Snitker, who has led the team to seven straight postseason appearances and is in his 49th year with the organization. No, it was simply a response to two seasons of Tuiasosopo making poor decisions. A change team officials deemed necessary. Snitker isn't blameless. The Braves aren't going to fire him after all he has achieved, but this sure looks like his last season. On Thursday alone, he could have stuck longer with right-hander Grant Holmes rather than start the bullpen carousel by lifting him after 3 1/3 innings. Still, the Braves took their six-run lead into the ninth. At some point, their disappointing performance is on the players, from center fielder Michael Harris II to second baseman Ozzie Albies to closer Raisel Iglesias. Advertisement By this time a year ago, the Mets already had started their turnaround. The Astros got going about two weeks later. But not every club reaches its desired destination. Another projected contender last season, the Texas Rangers, showed how some teams never recover from faulty starts, missing the playoffs one year after winning the World Series. The Braves, if they don't snap out of it, could be this year's Rangers. Their plus-6 run differential indicates their record should be above .500, yet they are seven games under. They have played a major-league-high 25 one-run games, and are only 9-16 in those contests. Even with the deadline offering an opportunity for improvement, an opportunity Anthopoulos seized to catapult his club to a championship in 2021, the strength of the NL this season adds to the degree of difficulty. The Braves need more from their offense, which, before their 10-run eruption Thursday, was tied with the Marlins for 22nd in runs per game. They also need to fix their bullpen, which underwent another shakeup after Thursday's shocking ninth-inning collapse — Daysbel Hernández to the injured list, Scott Blewett designated for assignment and Craig Kimbrel and Dylan Dodd up from Triple A. Yet, for all the Braves' middle-inning maneuvering, the biggest problem remains closer Raisel Iglesias, whose .956 opponents' OPS essentially means he is turning every hitter into Pete Alonso. Not even the highly anticipated returns of right-hander Spencer Strider and right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. altered the Braves' trajectory. Strider is trying to regain his form after missing all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery and nearly a month this season with a strained right hamstring. Acuña, coming off nearly a yearlong absence due to a torn ACL in his left knee, is performing better than the Braves could have expected, batting .333 with four home runs and a 1.056 OPS. Yet the team is 3-9 since his return. Bad breaks are part of this. The loss of right-hander Reynaldo López to shoulder inflammation after one start. The offseason knee surgery that might sideline setup man Joe Jiménez all season. The 80-game suspension to left fielder Jurickson Profar for testing positive for PEDs. Advertisement Well, all teams deal with injuries. The $42 million investment in Profar, based on his outlier campaign in 2024, was always going to be a gamble. And even the regressions of Harris (.590 OPS) and Albies (.658) reflect the volatility in individual performance that is part of the game. The Braves never expected catcher Drake Baldwin and outfielder Eli White to make such positive contributions, either. Early in the offseason, Anthopoulos orchestrated a series of moves to create payroll flexibility, trading designated hitter Jorge Soler, allowing catcher Travis d'Arnaud to depart as a free agent and restructuring the contracts of López and reliever Aaron Bummer. The Braves later lost Fried, right-hander Charlie Morton and reliever A.J. Minter to free agency as well. Profar turned out to be Anthopoulos' only significant addition. And the team, under its Liberty Media ownership, wound up with a lower payroll. Fried might win a Cy Young Award, but the Braves never were going to sign him to the $218 million contract he received from the New York Yankees, and their rotation isn't a problem. Anthopoulos non-tendered Griffin Canning, the pitcher he acquired from the Los Angeles Angels for Soler, and the Mets turned Canning into a potential All-Star. But none of the other players Anthopoulos lost is haunting him. His plan just isn't unfolding the way he envisioned. The way the Braves are constructed, an offense that set records in 2023 should be capable of succeeding with light-hitting Nick Allen at shortstop, just as the Astros once thrived with Martín Maldonado at catcher. A better version of outfielder Jarred Kelenic, an Anthopoulos acquisition from last offseason who earned a demotion at Triple A, surely would help. But the Braves shouldn't need to rely on him, either. Some seasons are like this. Some years it doesn't just work out. The Braves are talented enough to bounce back like they did in 2021, and like the Mets and Astros did last season. But at some point, they've got to show it. And they sure aren't showing it yet. (Top photo of Brian Snitker: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
