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The Chicago Bears appear to have found exceptional value in edge rusher Austin Booker, despite the lopsided trade that allowed the team to select him in the NFL draft.
Chicago traded a fourth-rounder in 2025 to the Buffalo Bills to jump back into the fifth round in April with the express purpose of taking Booker No. 144 overall. However, Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Department gave the inexperienced defensive end a third-round grade.
Given Booker’s preseason production of 3 sacks and 9 pressures on 58 pass rush snaps, as well as the more specialized role the Bears may ask him to play, Booker appears poised to develop into a steal on a $4.4 million rookie contract.
“The biggest reasons Booker fell in the draft were because he lacked experience with only one start in college and he’s a work in progress against the run … but the latter shouldn’t be too much of an issue in Chicago this fall,” Holder wrote. “With DeMarcus Walker in the starting lineup, the Bears don’t necessarily need a run defender on the edge. That said, the defense could use a second pass rusher to complement Montez Sweat.”
Booker certainly had a breakout season last year at Kansas University, racking up 12 tackles for loss and 8 sacks, per Football Reference.
Bears Trade for Darrell Taylor Could Indicate Concerns Over Austin Booker’s Readiness for Large Role
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GettyFormer Seattle Seahawks linebacker Darrell Taylor.
The case against Booker making an outsized impact in 2024 is that the Bears traded a sixth-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks for pass rusher Darrell Taylor last week.
Taylor has racked up 22 tackles for loss and 21.5 sacks over the course of his three years in Seattle, appearing in 49 of 51 regular-season games and earning 13 starts along the way.
However, Taylor is playing on just a one-year deal worth $3.1 million, which gives the Bears plenty of flexibility to move on either ahead of the trade deadline in November or after the season in March and open up more snaps for Booker in his second professional season.
Matt Eberflus Opens Up About Austin Booker’s Role on Bears Defense
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GettyEdge defender Austin Booker of the Chicago Bears.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus spoke last week about Booker’s role with the team and how his play will define it as the season presses on.
“We feel really good where he is in terms of a pass rusher, we’ve seen that in the preseason. Then really, working on his game to be an every down end where he can play the run, set the edges that we ask and do things that we want him to do in terms of playing run defense on first and second [down],” Eberflus said during a press conference. “We’ll define his role. He’ll have real responsibility [as a run defender] and if he can do all things, which we want him to do, he will do that. If he’s a little bit developing in a certain phase of it, we’ll just back him down to that particular department.”
Chicago opens the season at Soldier Field on September 8 against the Tennessee Titans.