Bears Get Good News on Zavion Thomas’s Knee Injury as Luther Burden III’s Absence Looms
The Chicago Bears will lean on their offense more than ever in 2026. Chicago enters the season with high expectations after winning the NFC North a year ago, and quarterback Caleb Williams just got a small piece of good news about one of his young targets.
Bears wide receiver Zavion Thomas is not expected to miss much time with a knee injury, according to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. Thomas went down during 7-on-7 drills at Sunday’s training camp practice and had to be helped off the field.
CHGO Bears reporter Adam Hoge was on hand for the injury and described what he saw. Thomas briefly grabbed his knee, then walked off the Walter Payton Center turf with a slight limp. He did not return to practice. The Chicago Tribune’s Sean Hammond reported that Thomas got knocked to the turf during the 7-on-7 period, and the Bears later characterized the issue as knee soreness with a day-to-day designation.
That’s a real break for a rookie the Bears drafted in the third round out of LSU to bring speed to Caleb Williams’s passing game. It’s also a needed break for a receiver room that’s taken hit after hit through the first two weeks of camp.
Luther Burden III’s Injury Changes the Math
The bigger concern belongs to Luther Burden III. The second-year receiver suffered a groin injury Saturday when he got tangled up with cornerback Tyrique Stevenson during one-on-one red-zone drills, fighting for a pass from Williams. He walked off under his own power but didn’t return.
Multiple outlets have since confirmed the same rough timeline. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported, citing sources, that Burden is expected to miss the rest of the preseason. CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reported the same, adding that the team is optimistic Burden will be ready for Chicago’s regular-season opener at Carolina on September 13.
A month on the shelf isn’t nothing, but it beats the alternative. Burden was tangled up with a defensive back on a full-speed rep, and soft-tissue injuries in the groin area can occasionally linger past the initial estimate. For now, the expectation across multiple credentialed reports is that he clears it in time for Week 1.
Why Burden’s Health Matters So Much
The stakes are higher this year because Chicago traded away DJ Moore in the offseason, handing Burden a clear path to a featured role. As a rookie, Burden caught 47 passes for 652 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games, missing two contests with an ankle issue and a concussion. He ranked third among all wide receivers — not just rookies — in yards per route run, trailing only Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua.
| Bears WR (2025) | Rec | Yards | TD | YPR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luther Burden III | 47 | 652 | 2 | 13.9 |
That kind of efficiency is why expectations jumped for Burden the moment Moore left for Buffalo. Coleston Loveland and Rome Odunze remain part of the passing-game mix, but Burden was already trending toward a featured role before the injury, and head coach Ben Johnson has spent the offseason praising his development. None of that changes with a month off — it just delays it.
Depth Steps Up in the Meantime
With Burden sidelined and Thomas day-to-day, the Bears will lean on Rome Odunze, Kalif Raymond and Jahdae Walker to soak up reps for the rest of camp. Walker has already made noise in Burden’s absence — he hauled in a 59-yard touchdown from Williams during Sunday’s practice while working with the first-string offense, a play The Athletic’s Dan Wiederer called the best of the day.
It’s the latest domino in what’s been a physical camp for Chicago. Defensive back Coby Bryant is already dealing with a hyperextended knee that will cost him regular-season games, and the Bears have shuffled their secondary with a mix of veteran signings and roster moves to cover for it. Sunday’s session was moved indoors because of weather, but that didn’t spare the receiver room from more attrition.
None of the wide receiver injuries appear to be long-term concerns at this point. That’s the encouraging thread running through a rough stretch of camp — Bryant’s knee is the outlier, while everything else, Burden included, currently points toward a return before or right around the regular season.
Chicago’s next test comes in preseason action against the Browns, kicking off at 1 p.m. ET on August 15 at Soldier Field.
