Chicago Bears: Trey Burton signing adds depth, flexibility at tight end
The Chicago Bears will reportedly sign tight end Trey Burton. The Super Bowl hero teams up with Adam Shaheen to give the team a tough tight end duo.
Well, this was supposed to be a big offseason for the Chicago Bears. They needed to add weapons to the porous offense. So far, that’s exactly what they’ve done. After adding wide receiver Allen Robinson, the Bears also reportedly signed tight end Trey Burton. Burton was a part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl run in 2017.
He actually threw a touchdown pass to quarterback Nick Foles that helped win the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. He’ll always be celebrated in Philadelphia, but this is a business and hard decisions always need to be made.
The Bears got younger and more athletic. After acquiring Robinson (24 years old) they got themselves a young tight end in Burton (26 years old). Also, they signed 26-year old kicker Cody Parkey.
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Burton played behind Zach Ertz and Brent Celek so he didn’t see much action. He played on only 27 percent of the Eagles’ offensive snaps. Philadelphia has the biggest cap problem in the league. They’re actually over the cap by just under $10 million so they couldn’t afford to keep Burton. Ironically, they needed to cut Celek for salary cap space purposes.
Teaming Burton with Adam Shaheen gives the Bears a young, tough tight end duo. Shaheen is 6-6, 280 pounds and Burton is 6-3, 230 pounds. With Robinson measuring in at 6-4, 220 pounds, second-year quarterback Mitch Trubisky has three big-bodied targets to go to.
The Bears also have Dion Sims, but expect him to be cut. If the Bears do that, they save about $5.7 million in cap space. Additionally, with the $11 million saved with the expected cut of Mike Glennon, the Bears get even more money to work with.
Next: NFL Free Agency 2018: Grades for major signings
The Bears look to have a high-powered offense with new coach Matt Nagy and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich. They’re on their way with the signings of Robinson and Burton. Add a good young kicker in Parkey and we should expect a lot more points in 2018 than they had in 2017.