Eagles

Reports: Trey Burton Out, Gargantuan Run-Stuffer In

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 13th, 2018 · 11:52 AM EDT

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Trey Burton’s free agency departure seemed inevitable.

Looks like the Birds’ backup tight end is heading to Chicago, per Mike Garafolo:

Former Eagles TE (and sometimes trick-play QB) Trey Burton is expected to sign with the Bears, source says.

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 13, 2018

It’s not a bad landing spot for Burton, who will make a deserved $32 million over 4 years, according to Ian Rapopppppppport.

He’ll join an offense featuring a young quarterback in Mitch Trubisky and a pair of good backs in Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen. Chicago’s receiving and tight end production was mostly wretched last year, so Burton will have a chance to stand out immediately as he assumes legitimate starter snaps instead of being a peripheral piece, which was the case during his entire Eagles tenure. Sometimes that periphery including throwing Super Bowl touchdown passes, and sometimes it didn’t.

In a separate move, it looks like the Eagles found their Beau Allen replacement:

Former Lions’ DT Haloti Ngata intends to sign a one-year deal with Eagles, per @mortreport and me.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 13, 2018

But a Lions beat writer is pumping the brakes:

Quick update on the Haloti Ngata to Eagles: I'm told that deal is not done yet, but that there has been talk of him visiting.

— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) March 13, 2018

Okay.

Let’s assume he signs –

Ngata is 34 and has a lot of wear on the tires, but it looks like he’s coming here on the cheap. Considering what you have in Michael Bennett, Fletcher Cox, and Tim Jernigan, you’ve already got a strong presence on the interior defensive line. But with Bennett lining up as a defensive end in your base package, there will be plenty of snaps for Ngata next season. Remember, Beau Allen played 400+ downs as the third tackle on the depth chart, so look for Ngata to get his.

He’s a massive human being, standing 6’4″ and weighing 335 pounds. I’m 6’1″, 165, so he would certainly pancake me into oblivion.

To that point, he’s always been hard to move, a stout run-stuffer who just occupies a ton of space at the line of scrimmage. He played the prime of his career as a nose tackle in the Ravens’ 3-4 system before switching to a 4-3 in Detroit back in 2015. A torn bicep ended his 2017 season after just five games.

Here are his career stats:

 

The Birds just keep adding to an already stacked roster, and fans of the 31 other NFL teams aren’t happy about it:

lol first 6 comments on the Haloti Ngata report from @AdamSchefter are just people pissed that the Eagles keep signing players pic.twitter.com/CSM0LDoR3D

— Justin (@JustinKennedy87) March 13, 2018