It didn’t take former Chicago Bears tight end Trey Burton long to find his footing after Chicago released him last Friday.
Burton has signed a one-year deal with the Indianapolis Colts, which according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, will be the worth the league minimum. But Burton is guaranteed to make $4 million because of his contract with the Bears.
Earlier this week during his pre-draft conference call with reporters, Bears general manager Ryan Pace discussed the reasoning behind Burton’s release — which was a failed physical designation.
“Unfortunately for him and for us, the injuries kind of added up,” Pace said. “We just felt at this time that was the best course of action for our team.”
The move didn’t clear any significant salary cap space, and the Bears will still have to pay Burton $4 million in 2020. But in classifying Burton’s release as a post-June 1 transaction, Chicago has cleared $2.8 million in cap space for 2020.
Pace brought in Burton to be the tight end Matt Nagy needed to make his offense go. And while Burton showed promise in 2018 — 54 receptions for 569 yards and six touchdowns — he wasn’t the same after the groin injury that held him out of Chicago’s wild card playoff game against the Eagles.
In 2019, Burton played in just eight games, where he had 14 catches for 84 yards, before landing on injured reserve. Considering the Bears shelled out $32 million — with $22 million guaranteed — it’ll go down as another failed free-agent acquisition for Pace.
The Bears have certainly made tight end a priority this offseason, which included the hiring of tight ends coach Clancy Barrone and the acquisition of veterans Jimmy Graham and Demetrius Harris.
Even with those additions, the Bears still have a big question mark the tight end position, a group that was a collective failure in 2019. Chicago still has nine tight ends on their roster — which could become 10 if the Bears target a tight end in the 2020 NFL Draft.
