The Chicago Bears may have an unfortunate injury situation brewing with one of their projected starting edge rushers just days before their preseason finale.
According to beat reporters in attendance for August 26’s closed practice, the Bears did not have defensive end Austin Booker available for a second straight day. The 23-year-old has not participated since last week’s joint practices with the Cincinnati Bengals.
“Have not spotted #Bears DE Austin Booker at practice,” The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs wrote Wednesday on X. “He was one of the frontline players that was not in uniform for Saturday’s exhibition [against the Bengals].”
The Bears have provided no additional context to Booker’s ongoing absence, but it does raise new injury concerns about their oft-criticized defensive line for the 2026 season.
Booker has lined up opposite veteran Montez Sweat with the Bears’ first-team defense for much of this summer’s training camp after tallying a career-high 4.5 sacks in 2025. He also added a sack in the Bears’ wild-card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers.
If an injury were to keep him off the field, it would significantly weaken Chicago’s edge-rushing depth heading into the first game of the 2026 regular season on September 13.
Austin Booker Injury Could Unravel Bears’ Pass-Rush Plan
After finishing with the second-worst pass-rush win rate (29%) in the league in 2025, the Bears resisted the urge to make wholesale changes to their edge-rusher room and rather boldly opted to run things back with the same personnel for the 2026 season.
In defense of the strategy, the Bears did not get the full capabilities of their defensive end room in 2025. Dayo Odeyingbo, a marquee $48 million free-agent addition, and Shemar Turner, a second-round rookie, both suffered season-ending injuries at about the midway point in the season, forcing Chicago to resort to considerably worse depth.
The Bears also didn’t have Booker on the field until the first week of November, as he suffered a knee injury during training camp and took time ramping back up again.
Even still, the Bears are taking massive risks with their re-up strategy in 2026, and the crack could begin to show quickly if Booker remains sidelined into the regular season.
Montez Sweat: Booker Has Become ‘Complete Player’
Booker is expected to play a vital role off the edge for the Bears defense in the upcoming season after his late-season emergence as a starter in 2025. Good thing, then, that their most valuable pass rusher is starting to see a difference in Booker ahead of his Year 3.
“Book has turned into a complete player,” Sweat said last week before Booker’s absence. “He’s a guy that wants to be there on all first downs and second downs, and he’s becoming a very complete player.”
The Bears figured it might take Booker — who entered the draft a season earlier than most expected — a few seasons to find his stride as a productive NFL pass rusher. A knee injury kept him from realizing that potential in 2025, but he looked like a player on the cusp of a breakout down the stretch of last season and into the postseason.
The question now is whether Booker can stay healthy. Again, the Bears have not yet discussed Booker’s reasons for remaining off the field over the past two days, but the concerns could ramp up if he does not return for joint practices against the Titans.
The Bears will play their preseason finale against the Titans at 5 p.m. ET on August 29.
Bears Injury Concerns Grow as Starting Edge Rusher Misses More Practice