BIOGRAPHY
Lawrence Godfrey Burton III, known professionally as Trey Burton, was born on October 29, 1991, in Venice, Florida. He is an American football tight end for the Chicago Bears in the NFL.
He attended Venice High School, where he was a standout dual-threat quarterback for the Venice Indians high school football team, he played basketball and ran track at Venice HS.
As the Indians starting junior quarterback in 2008, he completed 80 of 133 pass attempts for 1,399 yards and 12 touchdowns, while rushing for 919 yards and 24 touchdowns. As a senior in 2009, he passed for 1,876 yards with 18 touchdowns and only one interception and rushed for 821 yards and 22 touchdowns; he earned FSWA SA All-State First-Team honors for both years.
Burton accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where he played for coach Urban Meyer and coach Will Muschamp's Florida Gators football teams from 2010 to 2013. Initially recruited as a quarterback in Urban Meyer's spread offense, he played several positions for the Gators, including wide receiver, tight end, fullback, and quarterback. In 2010 as a freshman he broke Tim Tebow's records for most rushing touchdowns in a game and most points in a game by a non-kicker.
He was named to the 2010 SEC All-Freshman Team and was SEC Freshman Player of the Week twice during the season, also earned a place on the 2010 SEC Academic Honor Roll.
As a sophomore in 2010 joined Chris Rainey as the only Gators to score both a rushing and receiving TD in the same game; finished the season with 19 catches for 149 yards and one TD, while adding 125 yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries.
As a junior he appeared in 12 games, registering 190 yards and 2 TDs on 29 carries and 18 catches for 172 yards and 1 TD. In 2013 as a senior captain he tallied 38 receptions for 445 yards and 1 TD as a full-time wide receiver.
Burton received an invitation to the NFL combine and attended as one of 22 collegiate tight ends; On March 17, 2014, Burton opted to participate at Florida's pro day, At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Burton was projected to be a seventh-round pick or be a priority undrafted free agent by NFL draft experts and analysts. Burton was not selected in the 2014 NFL Draft. On May 10, 2014, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him as an undrafted free agent to a three-year contract.
He made his professional debut in the Philadelphia Eagles' season-opening against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the 2014 season, he appeared in 15 games as a rookie, carrying the ball five times for 10 yards.
On August 29, 2015, Burton caught four passes for 21-yards and two touchdown receptions during a preseason game. He became the first Eagles' player to have two touchdown receptions in a single preseason game. On November 26, 2015, Burton recorded his first career reception and finished with two catches for 49-yard; in total, he played in all 15 games and caught three passes for 54 yards (18.0 avg) and 1 TD.
On September 19, 2016, Burton caught five passes for 49-yards and scored his first career touchdown reception against the Chicago Bears. On October 16, 2016, Burton earned his first career start and made one catch for a seven-yard. During a Week 14 matchup against the Redskins, Burton caught a season-high seven passes for 65 receiving yards. Burton completed the 2016 season with 37 receptions for 327 receiving yards and a touchdown in four starts and 15 games. He played a career-high 233 offensive snaps (29%) and had both a forced fumble and fumble recovery on special teams.
In 2017 he appeared in 15 regular-season games with 1 start, recording 23 receptions for 248 yards (10.8 avg) and a career-high 5 touchdowns as the third-string tight end, recorded seven multiple-catch games, played in the Philadelphia Eagles season; on October 8, 2017, he caught two passes for 16-yards and made his second career touchdown reception on a 15-yard pass. On December 10, 2017, Burton recorded five receptions for 71 receiving yard and two touchdown receptions in the Eagles' NFC East Championship.
In Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots, Burton threw a touchdown pass on a trick play to quarterback Nick Foles with 34 seconds remaining in the first half. The Eagles went on to win the Super Bowl.
On March 14, 2018, Burton signed a four-year contract with the Chicago Bears. On September 9, he made his Bears debut, catching one pass for 15 yards against the Green Bay Packers. The next week against the Seattle Seahawks, Burton caught his first touchdown pass as a Bear. On September 30, Burton caught two passes for 86 yards and a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The next week he caught another touchdown pass against the Miami Dolphins, his third of the season. In week seven against the New England Patriots, Burton had nine receptions for a career-high 126 yards and a touchdown.
Burton finished the season with 54 catches for 569 yards and six touchdowns. He received an overall grade of 69.5 from Pro Football Focus in 2018, which ranked as the 22nd highest grade among all qualifying tight ends.
