Chicago Bears: Trey Burton signing keeps offensive revamp going

The Chicago Bears didn’t break stride after losing out on Albert Wilson, locking up another significant target in tight end Trey Burton.

Ryan Pace wasn’t, nor should he have been, satisfied with just grabbing star receiver Allen Robinson in free agency today. He had to make sure the Chicago Bears grabbed another significant pass-catcher for young quarterback Mitch Trubisky.

And unfortunately, a guy that many, including myself, had penciled in for the Bears, Albert Wilson, ended up signing with the Miami Dolphins on a three-year, $24 million deal. As such, the Bears will still need to look at other options at receiver.

But no matter. Pace made sure he didn’t miss out on one of his other long-rumored targets, former Philadelphia Eagles tight end Trey Burton.

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The price was a little steep for Burton, but it was nothing the Bears can’t handle or weren’t prepared to pay, obviously.

And on paper, at least, he provides an immediate upgrade at the tight end position for the Chicago Bears.

Most of you may know Burton as the guy who tossed the touchdown pass to Nick Foles in the Super Bowl on Doug Pederson’s daring trick play. Obviously, that’s probably the highlight of his career to this point.

But he’ll bring much more to the table for the Chicago Bears than that.

In particular, Burton, while listed as a tight end, is a pass-catching threat in the vein of Daniel Brown sort of player (except better).

He’s not a big guy at about 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, so don’t expect him to be an in-line tight end. That will be up to Adam Shaheen, assuming the Bears will now cut Dion Sims.

But he started to emerge as a significant receiving threat with Doug Pederson at the helm in Philadelphia. In the past two seasons, he posted 60 catches for 575 yards and six touchdowns. Five of those scores came last season alone.

He can run for his size and even has the capability to stretch the field both up the sideline and down the seams. And if you put him in the game and get a linebacker matched up with him, you can punish defenses repeatedly.

In the end, this move was all about adding more matchup nightmares for the Chicago Bears offense and more guys for Trubisky to throw to. Grabbing Try Burton absolutely accomplishes that and gives the Bears another young weapon (he’s just 26) that can grow in this offense.

Next: How Allen Robinson impacts Bears offense

The Chicago Bears are getting younger and more intriguing on offense by the hour, ladies and gentlemen. And there’s still more where that came from.