The Chicago Bears moved a future pick to jump back into the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. In doing so, they drafted Austin Booker, an edge rusher from Kansas. Booker is a player that some thought the team may have been interested in as their third-round pick, and he was also mentioned in the initial fourth-round candidates before the team selected Tory Taylor. He fits a need. What else does Booker bring?
3. Austin Booker does not have much experience
One thing that Austin Booker does not have is experience. Booker started his career at Minnesota and redshirted his freshman year. He spent his redshirt freshman year with the Golden Gophers but hardly saw the field.
Booker played 23 snaps and dressed for just six games. After struggling to find his footing there, he transferred to Kansas. Even at Kansas, he was a rotational pass rusher during his redshirt sophomore season. Still, Booker finally saw the field, playing 482 snaps.
In total, Booker has 505 snaps, with 235 as a run defender and 254 as a pass rusher, and he has dropped into coverage 15 times. That is a very small sample overall.
That is what causes someone to fall into the fourth round. The good news for Booker is that is still only 21 years. The best is ahead of him. He also went to a team where he will likely be the fourth rusher in the rotation to start his career. His rookie year should be about getting him experience and finding out what type of player he can be.
2. Austin Booker exploded with production in his last year of college
One of the reasons Booker could not play much at all for the first two years of his career outside of high school and yet still jump into the NFL after 2023 was his explosion in production. He went from two pressures in two years to 38 pressures in 2024.
Booker was a part-time and had 38 pressures on 237 pass-rush snaps. He had a pass rush productivity rating of 10.3, per PFF. For comparison, first-round picks Jared Verse was at 11.7, Laitu Latu was at 13.3, and Dallas Turner was at 12. He was not quite where they were, but his production was quality in comparison when you think of him as a fourth-round pick.
Meanwhile, Booker also had 34 run stops and a run stop rate of 10.2. Latu is at 6.9, Robinson is 5.9, and Turner is 4.2. Booker was much better against the run, although it was in a smaller sample.
Still, only Marshawn Kneeland and Adisa Isaac had a better run-stop rate. So, we are talking about a quality player in both areas. It is fair to question whether he can do it over a longer sample and if he can handle more snaps, but when he does play, it could be impactful.
1. The Chicago Bears did not draft an elite athlete
The Chicago Bears have been known for leaning on athletic scores when drafting their players, especially on day three. The thought is that the players who fell that far with high upside could be the biggest home runs. This was not the case with Austin Booker, who is a fine athlete but not elite.
Austin Booker was drafted in round 5 pick 144 in the 2024 draft class. He scored a 7.02 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 536 out of 1798 DE from 1987 to 2024. https://t.co/FGifwgEcGZ pic.twitter.com/AH8v1ZwUAE
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 27, 2024
He is thin, which adds to the question of whether he can handle a bigger workload in the NFL. He has a good broad jump, which shows lower body explosiveness, but pass rushers with great agility scores are the ones who can dip around tackles, and also change directions to chase down mobile quarterbacks. He was good to slightly above average in this area, but nothing exceptional to boast about.
Overall, the reasons Booker fell are clear. He is limited in experience and does not have the athletic flash, but he did show production in his limited time. This is an intriguing player, even if he may be maxed out as a rotational pass rusher.