COLUMBIA, Mo. — Next stop: the National Football League.
Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III will declare for the NFL Draft on Monday, a source familiar with his decision told the Post-Dispatch. ESPN first reported Burden's intent to declare. He's heading to the professional ranks early, where he's projected to be one of the first players taken in the upcoming draft.
Burden has been Mizzou's most transformational player in recent years, a five-star prospect who picked his home state school, starred on a national stage and signed high-visibility name, image and likeness deals.
“The legacy of Luther Burden,” Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz said Saturday, “is going to be the monumental decision he made to come to the University of Missouri, when nobody else thought he should have.