The Chicago Bears dominated Saturday against the Buffalo Bills, winning 33-6. Every phase made strong contributions to the effort. The offense scored two late touchdowns to put it away. Defensively, they allowed six points and scored a touchdown of their own. Aside from one big return, the special teams were mostly solid. Perhaps what stood out the most was the pass rush, which racked up eight sacks. Rookie 5th round pick Austin Booker led the way with 2.5 sacks and three QB hits.
He was named game MVP for his effort. This marked the second straight week that he showed flashes of his significant potential. Coaches are excited about what they’ve seen. He’s shown everything they saw during their draft evaluations from last year through April. However, one person wasn’t happy with that performance: Booker himself. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune found out why. His reasoning will give you an idea of why the rookie is off to such a great start.
Booker didn’t have a great performance at the scouting combine and came out of Kansas pretty raw without a ton of college experience. I know some teams didn’t like him at all, and he’s hard to picture in a scheme that puts a premium on stouter edge players.
But the Bears really liked the athlete and the person and believed there was a chance the fifth-round pick could take off. An impressive first two weeks of camp didn’t lead to anything big in the Hall of Fame Game, but Booker had 2½ sacks, three quarterback hits and five tackles Saturday — and what he wanted to talk about was two other sacks that got away.
“It can always be better,” he said.
Austin Booker is one of those players who is never satisfied.
He has that weird personality quirk where he downplays any good games he has, always finding faults in something he did. Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long said he was the same way during his career. Booker had a game that most rookies would’ve dreamed of, and he couldn’t get over the fact that he left two sacks on the field. That is a reason he will go far in the NFL. Such a mentality means he will never stop working. He will never stop fighting on every snap to make the play.
Remember, Austin Booker is only 21 years old. He started one season at Kansas. When he declared, most experts agreed he was too raw for the NFL. The Bears understood the risks, but they also saw somebody with immense upside if given the right instructions and motivation. Putting him in the hands of Eric Washington, one of the best defensive line specialists in the league was a great first step. It appears his progress is going even faster than they expected. We’re starting to see why.
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