Burks has played 15 games or more in the past five seasons, including all 17 regular-season contests for the Eagles last year with two starts. He appeared in all four playoff games and stepped in for injured Nakobe Dean for the final three games. Burks had five tackles and played in 98.2 percent of the defensive snaps during the Eagles’ Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs, and he had nine tackles, a tackle for loss and a sack in the NFC Championship game.
This will be Burks’ fourth team in the last five seasons. He originally was a third-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2018 and after four years with the Packers, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers and spent two seasons there.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said at the NFL Combine that linebacker would be a need this offseason after a disappointing season for the defense, which is going through an overhaul under new defensive coordinator Al Golden.
Veteran linebacker Germaine Pratt recently asked for a trade but still remains a question mark for the future. Logan Wilson will be coming off a season-ending knee injury, which required a minor surgical procedure on his knee to clean it out, and Akeem Davis-Gaither is now a free agent. Davis-Gaither was up and down and failed to stand out in his increased opportunities at the end of the season.
Burks also will add to Cincinnati’s special teams. He had 318 special teams snaps last year, second most for the Eagles, and since his rookie season in 2018 he ranks 13th in the league in special teams snaps with 1,980, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.
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