Trey Burton has officially signed his one-year tender offer from the Eagles.
The second-round tender means his salary and salary cap number for 2017 will be around $2.8 million.
That's pretty pricey for a third-string tight end, but Burton is more important to the Eagles than most third-string tight ends.
The second-round tender also basically told the rest of the league "hands off" when it comes to Burton. Had another team wanted to sign him, the Eagles would have had the option to match and would have been awarded a second round pick from that team.
It seems very possible the team will try to sign Burton to a long-term extension. The team offered him a long-term contract during the 2016 season, but the two sides couldn't agree, according to a league source. Burton will become an unrestricted free agent after the 2017 season.
Burton, 25, had a career year in 2016, when he has 37 catches for 327 yards and a touchdown and was a major contributor on special teams.
Philadelphia Eagles
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles and their NFL rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
"Trey, he's a four-core special teams player, he's a great leader," Eagles head coach Doug Peterson said at the NFL owners meetings last week. "He's young but he's a good leader of our football team. Brings energy every day. Love having him on the team. You saw what he did last year when Jordan (Matthews) was hurt at the end of the season. Trey became sort of a target for Carson.
"Big part of our team and the thing is, you want to, you don't ever want to let good players go. You can't. I mean, that's the bottom line. It's like, you just want to keep as many guys as you can."
