I was going to do a report card on Luther Burden’s season, but what was that going to lead to? He played well, had some huge moments, but not as well as expected. So B- or so. Great.

Instead, let’s take a look at how Burden stacks up against the other top receivers being mocked in next year’s NFL draft to get an idea of what he’s going up against.

I’m going to look at Tetairoa McMillan (Arizona), Emeka Egbuka (Ohio State) and Isaiah Bond (Texas). I’m taking out Travis Hunter even though he’ll likely be the first taken because it’s just not possible to quantify the extra value he brings as a corner, which is where he’s a better prospect anyway. So go in knowing Hunter is the best prospect in the group because of that value, but he’s not a pure receiver.

I’m going to include 2023 and 2024 numbers because I think that gives you a better full glimpse at each guy.

I’m going to borrow some of PFF’s strengths and weaknesses for each of these guys.

For Burden the strengths are: great all-around athlete, natural playmaker with the ball in his hands, very elusive after the catch, good balance for yards after the catch, adequate long speed, fast footwork.

His weaknesses are: Can get pushed around in the blocking game and doesn’t always attack the ball in the air.

I think those are all fair evaluations. Burden isn’t the fastest in the group, but his elusiveness and athleticism make him an incredibly intriguing NFL prospect and ya he doesn’t always block really well or go up to high point passes.

In the past two seasons, Burden had 147 catches for 1,888 yards and 15 touchdowns to go with 16 rushes for 146 yards and two touchdowns. So he had 163 plays from scrimmage for 2,034 yards and 17 scores.

For McMillan, the strengths listed are his height, smooth strides, acceleration for a big body, rare false steps on release, huge catch radius, only two drops.

His weaknesses are a slender build, low separation score vs. single coverage, naturally tougher to sink/flip his hips on cuts, lacks the mass to be a consistent blocker.

So his upside is his size and speed and his downside is his size and strength. Interesting combo.

McMillan is listed at 6-foot-5, 212 pounds, so he’s a good bit taller than anyone else in this group (Egbuke is 6-1), but only about four pounds heavier than Burden even though he’s six inches taller.

That means he’s much skinnier and has a lot of room to increase weight/strength.

In the past two seasons, McMillan caught 174 passes for 2,721 passes and 18 touchdowns, while rushing one time for 3 yards.

For Egbuka, PFF lists strengths as: very quick and controlled, high separation scores due to elite body control/speed control, willing/feisty blocker, high IW player, good balance through contact.

His lone weakness is: lack of size limits efficacy of blocking.

The past two seasons, Egbuke caught 111 passes for 1,411 yards and 14 touchdowns. But If you take his two best seasons, 2024 and 2022, he caught 144 passes for 2,047 passes and 20 touchdowns, plus 17 rushes for 107 yards and two scores.

I think it’s fair to count Egbuke’s sophomore season here since he only played 10 games as a junior, though he did lack some production in the games he played in.

Bond’s strengths are listed as: top-tier athlete, knows he needs to hand-fight vertical releases, not afraid to put his body on the line for catches, will make tough catches through contact, great stop-and-start body control.

His weaknesses: Releases and routes lack nuance, needs to understand how to stop when he finds space.

The past two seasons Bond caught 81 passes for 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns, while rushing five times for 101 yards and one score.

So to recap, McMillan has by far the best numbers and the best height, Burden has great numbers comparatively and has the most listed upsides and Egbuke has the fewest listed downsides.

PFF has McMillan at second on the big board, Burden ninth, Egbuke 16th and Bond at 23.

We’ll start with each guy’s season grades from their two best seasons.

Let’s start at the bottom, based on both grades and overall numbers, it’s pretty easy to see why Bond is the bottom of the group. In a year at Alabama and a year at Texas, both offenses that had success throwing the ball, but weren’t pass-heavy, Bond was solid but not incredible.

He's the best deep threat, as represented by his average depth of target, he regularly catches the ball farther downfield than the rest of the group, but he also did the least with it after the catch in his best season (2023). This season, he had more production after the catch than anyone but Burden in 2023.

Each of these guys has a different situation around them affecting the numbers, Bond had fantastic players all over the field in both seasons, so his teams never had to force-feed him the ball like McMillan’s did.

But he also doesn’t jump off the stat sheet ever.

Obviously, I didn’t spend all season watching any of these guys other than Burden, so most of what I have to go off of is stats and the opinions of other experts. But it seems like the numbers and the experts agree on Bond.

Next up, let’s look at Egbuke’s numbers. Both seasons were pretty solid. His 2022 receiver grade puts him 10th in the country of players with at least 80 targets just behind Tank Dell and Rashee Rice. His grade this year also puts him 10th just behind McMillan ad well behind teammate Jeremiah Smith (90.5).

Again, surrounded by talent, but Egbuke does jump off the stat page at times anyway.

Now McMillan had nothing around him, especially this year. The next most-targeted receiver for Arizona was Chris Hunter with 51 targets and 35 catches. He had 67.5/66.8 grades.

McMillan was what made the Arizona passing game go, his numbers certainly show that as the leader in the group in touches, yardage and scores.

He regularly caught passes pretty far down field in both seasons, but did the least with it after the catch in both of his seasons than anyone else in both seasons.

Finally Burden, I think teams are going to grade him more on his performance in 2023 than this year. Working with a backup quarterback, then a quarterback with multiple injuries. Not playing in the second half of multiple blowouts early in the season.

There was a lot more to learn about Burden’s abilities in the 2023 season and looking at his overall numbers and his grades, he was the best in the group in any single season, even with Theo Wease other targets alongside him and a productive running game eating up some of the space he could have taken up in the offense.

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