Bear Digest

Bears Take a Look at Edge Rush Possibilities After Day 1

The Bears will have edge Austin Booker of Kansas at Halas Hall to close out top 30 visits, a pick that could go along with a wide receiver in Round 1.

Gene Chamberlain

Kansas State's Austin Booker moves in for a sack against Kansas.
Kansas State's Austin Booker moves in for a sack against Kansas. / Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA
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Bears top 30 visits close on Wednesday with a visit from an alternative player at edge rusher.

It's never wise to read too much into the 30 visits because only a handful each year make it to the Bears but Austin Booker from Kansas will be at Halas Hall per league source.

The significance of this could be interpreted as a strong lean early toward wide receiver at No. 9 in Round 1, then an edge in Round 3 or later.

They have visited at Halas Hall with the top four edge rushers at Halas Hall—Penn State's Chop Robinson, Florida State's Jared Verse, Alabama's Dallas Turner and UCLA's Laiatu Latu—but so far no other reported top 30 visits occurred with edge players projected to be taken beyond Round 1.

Booker is built a lot like Leonard Floyd was. He's an undersized edge who doesn't appear to fit this scheme at first glance, but definitely has the potential to fill out.

At least physically, he fits better than a third-round pick Mel Kiper made for the Bears on the edge, Jonah Elliss from Utah. Elliss is the son of former Lions defensive lineman Luther Elliss.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus likes long, lanky types who can bat the ball on the edge if they don't get there with the rush. Booker is 6-foot-4 1/2, but like Floyd was as a rookie, he is only 240 pounds.

However, Booker has longer arms than 63% of defensive edge players at 33 7/8 inches and a bigger wingspan (81 3/8 inches), which suggests he can fill out the frame by adding muscle.

Mockdraftable.com calls him a 95.9% match physically for Penn State edge Adisa Isaac, who is a projected second-rounder in this draft.

Booker is actually graded the sixth-best edge rusher in the draft by Sports Info Solutions for the33rdteam.com. He would have to be considered a developmental player. He essentially played only one year of college football. He was with Minnesota and left after seeing very little action in 2021-22, but last year with Kansas he flourished with eight sacks. He had 56 tackles, 12 for loss, and forced two fumbles last season, as well.

Can the Bears count on another edge project? They've had one the last two years in Dominique Robinson but this hasn't panned out.

At least this shows they're considering the possibility they'll need to take an edge in Round 3.

 So far the only receiver they've had a top-30 visit with who wasn't a potential first-round pick was speedy Jha'Quan Jackson from Tulane, but he's not a third- or fourth-round type of prospect. He's graded seventh-round by NFLmockdraftdatebase.com in their consensus big board.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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