Luther Burden vs Zay Flowers: Who Should You Start?
Two wide receivers who will land on plenty of the same rosters in 2026. Luther Burden (Chicago Bears) finished the 2025 season averaging 7.0 fantasy points per game in 15 games. Zay Flowers (Baltimore Ravens) came in at 11.8 PPG over 17 games. The gap is real but not insurmountable with the right matchup.
Zay Flowers carries a 4.8-point PPG advantage from the 2025 season. That baseline matters, but it is one input among several. Matchup difficulty, scoring trends, and injury reports move the needle week to week, which is why the best answer changes depending on when you are asking.
Target volume is the story here. Zay Flowers saw 118 targets in 2025, while Luther Burden drew 60. That workload gap usually translates into a higher weekly floor for Zay Flowers, even in weeks where Luther Burden posts the bigger ceiling game. Consistency-minded managers lean toward target share; boom-bust managers chase the upside.
Luther Burden has his bye in Week 7, and Zay Flowers rests in Week 14. Managers rostering both need waiver wire depth at wide receiver for those two weeks, and that is exactly the kind of planning DraftCall's matchup engine surfaces automatically so you are not scrambling on a Sunday morning.
