Trey Burton, the tight end the Bears cut in April after he was unable to stay healthy last year, has been activated from the Colts’ injured reserve just in time to travel to Soldier Field.
It’s unclear exactly how much Burton will play Sunday, if at all. He’s practiced all week with the team in his first step from returning from a calf injury suffered Aug. 29. He reportedly had a good rapport with new quarterback Philip Rivers during camp.
Burton had only 14 catches for 84 yards last year as he worked through a core injury that carried over from the end of the previous season. Burton woke up the day before the Bears’ playoff game against another former team, the Eagles, in great pain. He said MRIs supported the fact he had an injury. He didn’t play in the game.
Burton had surgery the following offseason which didn’t fix the problem.
He signed with the Colts just days after the Bears cut him in April — head coach Frank Reich was his coordinator with the Eagles — and claimed the Bears misdiagnosed him.
“I was kind of rushed back into playing and not necessarily having the time to recover that I should’ve had,” Burton said then. “I tried to fight through the season. Every week was — I mean when I say a struggle, that is a light term for it. It was rough, man. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play coming up to almost every Sunday.”
The Bears paid Burton to go away two years into a four-year, $32 million deal. They are paying about $3.1 of his salary this season.
