Austin Booker is making the case for more playing time on the Bears' defensive line

As the 2024 season has progressed, the Chicago Bears have been comfortable with increasing rookie Austin Booker's role on the defensive line. The fifth-round pick only played 34 snaps in the first three weeks of the season, but he has played 55 in the past three weeks.

Booker played 9.4% of the snaps in Week 1 and 14.3% in Week 3. While he played 32.3% in Week 2, he was over 23% in each of the past three weeks and was at a career-high 35.5% of the snaps against the Jaguars. 

Austin Booker has seen an increase in playing time during his rookie season.

This is trending up, and his play has been good enough that he should remain involved for at least 23% of the snaps in every game. However, it may not exceed the 35.5% that he played against Jacksonville too often. 

Booker is playing more because the team is winning and getting into more obvious passing situations. In the last three weeks, he has 40 pass-rush snaps compared to 12 run-defense snaps. In the first three weeks, he had 13 rushes and 19 run-defense snaps. There is a notable shift here. 

It is no coincidence when the Bears drafted Booker, he was known to be a potential situational pass rusher because he is a bit light and struggles to maintain his ground against bigger blockers in the run game. 

While Booker has not been an issue in run defense this year, it is because Chicago has been mindful of when they play him there. 

The answer to whether Booker will play more or not after the bye week is that it depends. If the Bears continue to lead games by multiple scores in the second half, you can bet on him playing more. 

If the Bears are down and the opposition is looking to run the ball, you won't see Austin Booker. It will be worth noting how much run defense he plays this week to see if he is gaining trust or if this trend remains.