The mysterious case of Trey Burton’s demise is the Bears’ 2019 season in a nutshell.
The Bears haven’t been the same team since Burton suddenly missed the wild-card game against the Eagles in January with a groin injury — after practicing all week with no indication of any problem. And the Bears’ fine touch in avoiding injuries and rehabilitating injuries through most of the rejuvenating 2018 season has betrayed them in 2019.
Burton’s recovery was problematic from the start. The Bears initially elected to forego surgery to allow the injury to heal on its own. And when that didn’t work, Burton had sports hernia surgery — a procedure that was announced in inexact terms in May (“a couple of months ago,” Matt Nagy said when asked about the inactive Burton after an OTA practice).