Chicago Bears: Relying on Trey Burton would be a mistake

It would be a huge mistake for the Chicago Bears to rely on Trey Burton next season.

According to a recent report from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback, the Chicago Bears are strongly considering rolling into 2020 with Trey Burton as the headliner at the tight end position.

In his latest piece, Breer noted, “I’m not saying Bears won’t go forward without supplementing at the position, but word is they’re OK with Trey Burton being the headliner there, on the belief that he’s just had a lot of bad injury luck the last couple years.”

This seems to be in contrast to a report last week that suggested the Bears were going to pursue Atlanta Falcons’ free-agent Austin Hooper. It also seems to conflict with common sense, as it seems apparent to everyone that the Bears need to upgrade the tight end position, regardless of where you come down on the Trubisky debate.

Whether Ryan Pace really intends to keep Mitch as the starter in 2020, the tight end position must be upgraded. However, if he does, it would be a monumental mistake to stick with Burton and not upgrade the position.

Look, no one can say with certainty what the Bears will do. Personally, I won’t read into Pace’s comments that Mitch is the starter in 2020. At this time, there is no other quarterback on the roster, and with the uncertainty around whether they’ll be able to land a quality option in free agency, it does the team no good but to come out and support Mitch publicly. However, the unwillingness yet to pick up his fifth-year option is more telling.

But let’s just say he is the starter. It’s clear that Mitch cannot be a quarterback that elevates the players around him. He’s simply not an elite quarterback. The conditions around him have to be almost perfect for him to be successful.

He does, however, have a good skill-set that can be effective assuming he improves his footwork, his ability to read defenses, to process information, and regains his confidence. That’s a lot that has to fall into place, but it’s what has to happen for the Bears to have any hope to win with Mitch next season.

Beyond all of those things, they need a competent and more importantly, a reliable option at tight end. While Burton was fairly decent in 2018, he was largely unavailable in 2019, a season that was filled with more questions than answers about his health.

The Bears simply cannot go into this season on the “hope” that Burton bounces back. Even if they bring in a different quarterback, whoever that is will need a reliable tight end option. At this point, Burton simply does not represent that.

While it is “lying season” and it’s hard to discern fact from fiction in these various reports, if the Bears are truly content with Burton being the main tight end next season, it could suggest, as our own Ryan Heckman pointed out, that the Bears might want to use those resources to bring in a quality quarterback.

If that is the case, let’s hope it is someone who can elevate the players — particularly the tight end — around him, because absent a renaissance season from Burton, the Bears shouldn’t bank on big-time results.