We've got an actual football game just three days from now, so practice reports start becoming meaningful. And it sounds like the Bears might not have a player who somebody might have actually drafted and needs to start somewhere, tight end Trey Burton.
Burton has a groin injury and didn't practice on Sunday. (With Chicago playing Green Bay on Thursday, they're on a different practice schedule than other teams.) Burton, most famous for throwing a touchdown in the Eagles Super Bowl win over New England, was pretty disappointing as a starting tight end in Chicago last year anyway.
Burton caught 54 passes for 569 yards last year, which doesn't sound terrible. Only nine tight ends caught more balls than he did, and only 12 finished with more yards. But the breakdown isn't good: He put up 371 yards and 5 TDs the first half of the season, and just 198 and 1 in the second eight games (despite playing in all of them). Among the 30 tight ends to catch at least 15 passes the second half of the season, only six put up fewer yards than Burton.
| TE PRODUCTION, LAST EIGHT GAMES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Yds | TD |
| George Kittle | 51 | 793 | 3 |
| Travis Kelce | 59 | 694 | 6 |
| Zach Ertz | 55 | 519 | 5 |
| Evan Engram | 28 | 432 | 1 |
| Jared Cook | 30 | 402 | 3 |
| Mark Andrews | 16 | 358 | 1 |
| Eric Ebron | 30 | 356 | 6 |
| David Njoku | 25 | 342 | 2 |
| Chris Herndon | 27 | 341 | 1 |
| Kyle Rudolph | 32 | 313 | 2 |
| Austin Hooper | 35 | 298 | 2 |
| Blake Jarwin | 23 | 265 | 3 |
| Vance McDonald | 24 | 264 | 3 |
| C.J. Uzomah | 26 | 255 | 1 |
| Ian Thomas | 25 | 246 | 2 |
| Rob Gronkowski | 18 | 234 | 2 |
| Levine Toilolo | 17 | 232 | 1 |
| Gerald Everett | 23 | 222 | 3 |
| Tyler Higbee | 18 | 222 | 1 |
| Jordan Reed | 21 | 218 | 1 |
| Jimmy Graham | 23 | 211 | 0 |
| Antonio Gates | 16 | 210 | 1 |
| Anthony Firkser | 17 | 200 | 1 |
| Trey Burton | 25 | 198 | 1 |
| Matt LaCosse | 15 | 166 | 1 |
| Cameron Brate | 16 | 160 | 3 |
| Jeff Heuerman | 16 | 147 | 1 |
| Dallas Goedert | 15 | 146 | 1 |
| Ricky Seals-Jones | 15 | 127 | 0 |
| James O'Shaughnessy | 15 | 113 | 0 |
Burton shouldn't have been in your starting lineup anyway this week, but it looks like he might not be there for Chicago. The Bears may need to turn to Adam Shaheen, who's had some injury issues of his own (and has caught all of 17 passes in two years in the league). So look elsewhere for a tight end this week.
--Andy Richardson