Bears DE Austin Booker Discusses Montez Sweat, Playing Time & More

Austin Booker, Darrell Taylor, Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears rookie Austin Booker has had an up-and-down season.

His playing time has fluctuated – as is common for rookies – and, naturally, so has his production. But Booker, the No. 144 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, is unwavering. He speaks about improving daily as intensely as he did during the offseason program and training camp.

Coming off a game versus the Los Angeles Rams where he recorded his first QB hit, Booker spoke with Clocker Sports about the season so far, his development, and Montez Sweat.

Bears’ Austin Booker Looking to Earn More Playing Time

Austin Booker Not Satisfied After 1st QB Hit

“I’m feeling pretty good, just trying to get in my rhythm,” Booker told Clocker Sports on Thursday before practice. “Keep getting better with the reps I’m getting, and just keep improving week by week.”

Booker recorded 2 tackles and his first hit on the quarterback in 2024.

“Yeah, I mean it felt cool. It’s just not good enough for me,” Booker said. “Just going to keep working, keeping it better.”

Booker called himself a “sleeper” during training camp, and he had an encouraging preseason. But it has been difficult to lock down a steady role on a defense that boasts several established players, who are playing at a high level no less.

Booker says his experience so far has been “good.” But he is not growing complacent in search of more reps.

“Just go day-by-day,” Booker said. “You can’t control that stuff, so all you can control is what you do on the field. So I’m just trying to get better and show them I can play more than I am.”

Per Pro Football Reference, Booker has seen snap shares of 9%, 32%, 14%, and this past week, 23%. Trade acquisition Darrell Taylor has assumed control of the third pass-rusher role behind starters Montez Sweat and DeMarcus Walker, who also plays tackle situationally.

To keep that number high, Booker must apply the lessons he has learned from his vets.

Booker received pointers from Sweat during the preseason, and the 1-time Pro Bowler spoke highly of his rookie protege. Booker said Sweat’s input was “great.”

“A guy with my same type of frame, so any questions I have most of the time related to him, and he’s able to answer him all the time. Booker said. “That’s been great.”

Booker was upfront about where he has grown most and where he wants to take the next step.

“I’ll probably say setting the edge. Focusing on the man, not looking in the backfield when I’m setting the edge. So just stuff like that,” Booker said of his greatest area of improvement.

He followed up his best run grade of the season from Pro Football Focus in Week 3 with his second worst in Week 4. But the entire run defense was faulty. The defense and Booker can look to bounce back in a game that could see him get plenty of reps as they host the reeling Carolina Panthers in Week 5.

As for his next improvements, Booker hesitated before saying his “get off” and comfort level.

Bears D-Line Coach Breaks Down Austin Booker’s Strides

Booker’s development is not accident or even a one-man journey. Judging from Bears defensive line coach Travis Smith, Booker’s increased playing time seems more a matter of “when” rather than “if.”

“Obviously, his plays have slightly just slimly go up a little bit each week. What I do like is his assignment executions on point,” Bears assistant defensive line coach Travis Smith told Clocker Sports ahead of Thursday’s practice. “The thing that jumps off the tape, though, is – whether he’s playing five reps or he’s playing 15 reps,  or whatever – is his effort and energy.

“There’s 0 loafs on his tape. And that sounds like a small thing, but it’s not. That’s hard to do up front when you gotta set the edge, rush the passer, gap and a ½, and then also get out of the stack. So that’s what I think, what he’s done a great job showing so far, is just his effort that he’s – no matter if the play;s on the other side of the field, outside the numbers – he’s going to be turning and running, and try and finish on the ball carrier.”

Smith said that Booker was “good” in the classroom, noting the “stoic” rookie was a “man of few words.”

But he also referenced the drive to improve that Booker has shown.

“Just like everyone, we’re all trying to improve or trying to be right. And it’s not always going to be perfect. But when there’s something that’s taught or installed there, we take it from the classroom, the film, to the walkthrough, to the field,” Smith told Clocker Sports.

“If there’s a mistake, or something that we have to correct, he’s really passionate about making sure that he eliminates these mistakes, and that he makes sure that it’s not a repeat offense. And then he’s got a, ‘F****. Okay, we gotta cut that out. This is what I gotta do in X,Y, or Z column’ [approach].”

Austin Booker, Bears Youngsters Benefitting From Leadership of DeMarcus Walker, Montez Sweat

Booker (and fellow young rushers Daniel Hardy and Dominique Robinson) can also lean on solid leadership in the Bears locker room, including Sweat and Walker.

Smith knows the value that provides a young player.

“I think the young players in our room are fortunate, because we have a very good, tight, close brotherhood. I think in a room where they all get along, they hang out together, they eat together, they go out and bowl together. There’s no fraudulent relationships in our room, which No. 1, that’s good,” Smith said of Sweat. You can trust, and rely, and depend on, be able to offer advice.

“It’s not just coaching coming myself or [assistant line coach Bryan] Bing. It’s also from the veterans in our room.

“We talk to each other and offer advice in, whatever, rush situations, run defense, ways to train, ways to sleep and nutrition. All that. So the young guys are fortunate in our room because they have some really good veterans that kind of lead the way for them.”

Walker is one of those veterans.

He arrived and immediately became a vocal leader for the defense. He said he was trying to lead more by example this season, and he has done that, “for sure.”

“If you look at it, our position’s a physical position to play, especially the way that we play up front. And after Week 1, no one is going to be perfectly healthy. But when talking about leading by example, still there’s an expectation and a standard to what we demand,” Smith said.

“He’s [Walker] done a great job of no matter what’s sore or what’s hurt, and what’s banged up, is that this is the way that we set the age, or that we rush the passer, or that we – if they’re passing – that we get aggressive, and we rush with power, and are able to flip our hips. And from that example, it’s not just been talking about it. It’s him showing, especially the young players, what we expect.”

Walker leads all Bears defensive ends in snap share.

He and Sweat are a solid pair of veterans for Booker to draw wisdom from as he makes his ascent from “sleeper.”