Chicago Bears rookie defensive end Austin Booker has had an eye-opening training camp and preseason. He has drawn praise from Montez Sweat, who will play alongside him this season.
The Chicago Bears have high hopes for 2024. They overhauled the offense and turned it into what they hope is a high-scoring machine. They improved the special teams with a punter who could be a game-changer. On defense, they have a unit that was one of the best for most of the season.
Now they want that defense to bring back the Monsters of the Midway persona that we are so familiar with. It had a rough start to the season in 2023 which skewered the numbers. Now the Chicago Bears’ defense wants to get off to a quick start in 2024 and show how dominant it really is.
General Manager Ryan Poles brought back the core of the defense. That includes cornerback Jaylon Johnson. Johnson had a Pro Bowl season in 2023. Many feel he is one of the elite cornerbacks in the NFL. There were times that a reunion did not seem possible, though. During negotiations last season, things got so testy that he requested a trade.
Thankfully, that never materialized. Things got smoothed out during the offseason and Johnson and the team agreed to a monster extension. Now Johnson will be one of the stalwarts and a leader for the defense.
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The one area in which there is still worry is pass rushing. The Chicago Bears have been unable to get to the quarterbacks the last few years. Poles brought in Montez Sweat to help change that. He did just that, helping the defensive line put more pressure on the quarterback than it had.
While Sweat did his part to raise the level of play of his teammates, it was not enough. We saw what the hated Green Bay Packers did in the regular season finale. They just ran a small village of blockers at Sweat, slowing his progression to the quarterback. No one on the other side could make them pay for that so Sweat was neutralized and Packers quarterback Jordan Love torched the Chicago Bears secondary.
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Poles did not want to see other teams do that. He did not use one of his first round picks on an edge rushers, however. He picked an interesting prospect in the fifth round by trading a 2025 fourth-round pick. He picked up Austin Booker out of Kansas.
Booker only had 580 snaps in college. He started in Minnesota and then transferred to Kansas. Many scouts felt that if he stayed another season in Kansas he could be a sure-fire first-round pick in 2025. He did not wait, though, and the Chicago Bears appear to be the beneficiaries.
Booker has had a great, eye-opening training camp and preseason. He keeps finding himself around the ball and the quarterback. He had a monster game against the Buffalo Bills in which he had 2.5 sacks. However, his impact has been felt throughout every game.
Booker is putting pressure on the quarterback and allowing his teammates to make big plays. He is doing the little things as much as the big things to make the Chicago Bears pass rush successful. This is exactly what Poles expected from him when he drafted him.
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In the process of getting better, Booker is opening eyes not only from his coaches but his teammates as well. The one he has most impressed is the player he could help protect — Sweat.
He’s just a tremendous talent; really light years ahead of where a rookie should be. I’m excited for the year and what he brings to the table. He’s starting to notice how guys like to block him. He’s trying out new moves and he’s just learning the defense and learning how to move faster within it.
When you hear people talk about Booker it is the same thing — he looks nothing like an inexperienced player who played just 580 snaps of college ball. He already looks like a veteran with his moves. Now he is learning even more of them.
Poles might have gotten one of the steals of the draft this year. He picked up what could be a first-round talent in the fifth round, using a fourth-round future pick. It is just the continuation of the tremendous job he has done in rebuilding the Chicago Bears roster to turn the team into a consistent playoff-contending team.
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