Bears DE Austin Booker steps into his biggest opportunity starting Week 10 with strong internal belief from people inside the building
The Chicago Bears were widely expected to be in the market for some pass rush help ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline after suffering multiple losses on the defensive front but how the team went about that process was still a question mark.After losing Dayo Odeyingbo in Week 9’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bears […]
The Chicago Bears were widely expected to be in the market for some pass rush help ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline after suffering multiple losses on the defensive front but how the team went about that process was still a question mark.
After losing Dayo Odeyingbo in Week 9’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bears were without a starting edge rusher playing opposite Montez Sweat.
That factor raised the urgency for a move to be made and opened the door for that potential addition to be an impact starter. Instead, the Bears went a different direction in the trade that was ultimately made, and it showed a lot of confidence from the team in one young player being able to step up.
Recent moves have shown the Bears have trust in Austin Booker rising to the opportunity
Ahead of the deadline, the Bears made a deal with the Cleveland Browns to land Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, a 26-year-old former first-round pick with a lot of experience as a rotational pass rusher going back to his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In Chicago, Tryon-Shoyinka is expected to play in a similar role, rotating in off the bench to help bring some extra boost to the pass rush and run support. The player expected to take over Odeyingbo’s spot as the other starter off the edge isn’t Tryon-Shoyinka, but second-year defensive end Austin Booker, who made his season debut last week coming off a preseason knee injury.
“The timing worked out where we got the extra week to see Book get going again and I think it reminded us back to the momentum he had going in the preseason,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles explained on Wednesday. “You saw those flashes and we expect those to continue to come.”
In his first game back, Booker played 37 defensive snaps and saw his workload increase after Odeyingbo suffered his injury with a little over seven minutes remaining in the four quarter. Prior to Odeyingbo’s injury, Booker made one of the highlight plays of the game when he long-armed left tackle Orlando Brown and got a strip sack on quarterback Joe Flacco, showing some of the same juice and potential he displayed during the preseason prior to his knee injury.
“I’m hopeful that he’s going to build off of that performance last week,” defensive coordinator Dennis Allen told reporters on Thursday. “I do think he gives us a little bit more in terms of the pass rush. For first game out after being out for a long time, I think that gives us a foundation to build from.”
Going into Week 10, Booker is expected to step up into a starting role for the first time in his career and will have the entire second-half of the season to take advantage of the opportunity trusted to him. Each game will be important from an evaluation and developmental standpoint to really see what the team has in the young pass rusher.
“He’s still in his second year, he’s still a young player,” Allen added. “He’s not the biggest guy that we have out there, so strength and power can be an issue at times. So, we’re working and trying to improve in those areas.”
On the other side of the front, Sweat has posted three consecutive games with a sack and is gaining his consistency back as an impactful player off the edge. Allen noted there’s still some meat left on the bone with Sweat’s game and having a player like Booker as his running mate off the edge can help open up more opportunities for Sweat and the entire pass rush as a whole.
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