As Bears tight end Trey Burton progresses toward a possible return Sunday against the Broncos, the team believes he’ll be back at the level of production he showed last season.
Burton has been rehabbing a strained groin muscle that kept him out of the opener, but was at practice Monday and has a chance to play in Denver.
“I think you’re gonna see the same guy once he is truly healthy, meaning a guy that can help you in the passing game with moving the chains and will have the occasional explosive play,” tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride said. “He brings a lot to the game mentally with his feel in the passing game. He’s no slouch in the run game, as well. It’s not like he’s an ideal matchup in the run game, but he holds his own.”
Gilbride saw improvement in Burton’s mobility and endurance this week and thought he was “moving around the way I’ve seen him move around before.”
In his first season with the Bears, Burton put up 54 catches, 569 yards and six touchdowns for the best year of his career.
In his absence last week, the Bears had one catch by a tight end in their 10-3 loss to the Packers. Adam Shaheen and Ben Braunecker are next in line at the position, but coach Matt Nagy was inclined to use running back Tarik Cohen at slot receiver to offset Burton being out.
“I’m not saying that he wouldn’t have helped us in a number of different areas, but nothing in particular stands out like, ‘Ah, man, I wish we had [Burton] in there instead of this guy,’” Gilbride said. “I feel like we were capable at the position last week in what we were asked to do.”
