Former Michigan TE Jake Butt finds new NFL home

Jake Butt’s football career hasn’t exactly gone smoothly.

The former Wolverines standout and Mackey Award-winning tight end tore his ACL in just his second year with the program, just as he was ascending. He came back and really started to thrive, particularly when Jim Harbaugh took over the program in 2015. Despite being a likely early-round draft pick and being mocked in the first-round, Butt returned for his senior year, where he had an incredible season, but again tore his ACL near the end of the first half of the Capital One Orange Bowl. His injury caused him to backslide all the way to the fifth-round of the draft, as he was selected by the Denver Broncos.

Just as he was getting started in Denver, again, Butt tore his ACL. But again he made a return and started looking the part, three-to-four years into his injury-plagued career. However, with his rookie contract up, it was time for a fresh start.

Per ESPN NFL insider Field Yates, Butt is headed to the Chicago Bears, where he has signed as a free agent.

We’ll see if Butt can stay healthy and start to be truly productive at the NFL-level. Chicago has some offensive issues of its own, having just signed Andy Dalton to be the replacement for maligned-QB Mitchell
Trubisky, but the Bears also picked former Ohio State passer Justin Fields to lead the team.

The Bears also have a plethora of tight ends on the roster, including Jimmy Graham and former Notre Dame TE Cole Kmet.

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