Bowen: Trey Burton likely to get plenty of playing time Monday night

VERSATILITY can get you onto an NFL roster, but starting roles and stardom usually are reserved for those who do at least one task really well.

Tight end Trey Burton has played in 31 Eagles games over two seasons. He has three career catches to show for that.

Burton, 24, who was a quarterback, fullback, wide receiver and tight end at Florida, made his mark with the Eagles as an undrafted 2014 rookie on special teams. As a tight end, he has been a bit of an afterthought.

Doug Pederson and the new coaching staff saw Burton's résumé and thought he might make an ideal part-time fullback in the spring, but the coaches quickly realized that Burton, 6-3, 235, was more likely to help them in a pinch as a wide receiver than as a battering ram. In fact, they split him out wide several times during the third preseason game at Indianapolis, in which he caught five passes for 35 yards.

Monday night in Chicago, we are likely to get our first extended regular-season look at what Burton can do as a tight end, with Zach Ertz unlikely to play after suffering a dislocated first rib in the season-opening victory over the Browns on Sunday.

Ertz and Jordan Matthews are rookie quarterback Carson Wentz's go-to targets. Brent Celek's hands still work, but he doesn't have Ertz's seam-splitting speed. Burton does. But he hasn't proved he can translate that into catches and yards.

"The more and more I've been in the league, and the more and more I've hung around Celek and Ertz, just brings more confidence to me," Burton said after Friday's practice, missed by both Ertz and cornerback Leodis McKelvin, who is likely to be replaced by rookie Jalen Mills against the Bears. "They're always boosting me up and showing love and things like that . . . Zach is one of the best pass-catching tight ends in the NFL. This means other guys have to step up."

Burton said he "wouldn't be here" without the lessons he has learned from Celek, Ertz and James Casey, a tight end and special-teams cog who spent 2014 with the Eagles.

Ertz caught six passes for 58 yards against the Browns, including Wentz's first NFL completion. Celek caught only one pass, for 11 yards.

"I'm excited for whatever they need me to do. I'm extremely excited - Monday Night Football, in Chicago, it's going to be a lot of fun," said Burton, who added that several family members had already planned to travel to the game, before they learned of his possible expanded role.

"Trey's gotta step up. We gotta adapt," offensive coordinator Frank Reich said Friday. "You just switch up your personnel groups. The good thing is, with this offensive system, it's all built on a multiple approach. You can change formations, you can change personnel groups and still run the same plays. So ya gotta adapt a little bit, but the system has some things that make it conducive (to that), because this stuff comes up all the time."

Injuries indeed are something NFL teams deal with constantly. In the preseason, the Eagles worked a fair amount with three-tight-end sets. Then they went into the opener without Burton, who suffered a calf strain in last Friday's practice. Backup tackle Matt Tobin got snaps as the third tight end, functioning strictly as a blocker, something we seem likely to see again in Chicago. But the Bears are unlikely to see Tobin as a pass-catching threat.

Reich was asked how he knows Burton can perform against the Bears.

"You work with these guys every day, it's the grind of the OTAs and training camp, builds a lot of confidence," Reich said. "Trey repeatedly showed, day-in and day-out, that it just wasn't an occasional thing for him to keep flashing in practice for making plays. It just shows a lot of natural ability, instinctive ability. It's a big opportunity for him."

Burton said he feels he has worked with Wentz enough that they shouldn't have problems connecting.

Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said the flow of the Browns game held Mychal Kendricks to 19 snaps, but "he's an important player to us, and he's going to play a lot of football this year" . . . Schwartz made special note of how well he thought defensive end Connor Barwin played in the opener, matched against nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas . . . Schwartz and Barwin both mentioned how Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler can "throw open" receivers, how defenders can't quit on plays . . . Running back Kenjon Barner, excused from Thursday's practice for personal reasons, was back Friday . . . Corner Leodis McKelvin (hamstring) remained sidelined . . .

Wide receiver Bryce Treggs is over his knee injury and practicing. Treggs, acquired on waivers from the 49ers at the last roster cutdown, said he thinks he has a good grasp of the game plan and believes he will be active Monday.

"The good thing about coming in (after the preseason) is that you're not installing a whole bunch of plays, there's a game plan every week. I don't have to know the whole playbook, I just have to know the plays we're running this week," Treggs said . . . A transformer blew, leaving NovaCare without power Friday afternoon. Meetings were postponed until Saturday, and players showered by flashlight.

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