LAKE FOREST, Ill. – It didn’t take long for Bears rookie defensive end Austin Booker to start earning comparisons to one of the best in the biz, Maxx Crosby. There’s not a lot of tape of Booker– he only played around 500 snaps in college– but what tape there is shows a guy who has a blend of speed, power and technique to work past offensive linemen. More than anything, it shows a guy who does not stop until a play is done. Pretty much all the same words one would use to describe Crosby.
Through parts of two games, Booker has six tackles, two TFL and 2.5 sacks. It looked like he should’ve had another half of a sack against the Texans, but Booker wasn’t given credit for it on the stat sheet.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Chicago sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“[Byron Cowart] came in and hit the ball out before the quarterback went down so it was just a quarterback hit,” Booker said.
It’s worth noting that Booker played against second and third stringers so far in the preseason, so it’s a little early for Crosby comps. But after another high-effort play where Booker made a stop after a long pursuit, broadcaster Jim Miller put it out there on the airwaves: Booker looks like a “poor man’s Maxx Crosby.” We heard the same thing again in the second episode of “Hard Knocks.”
“He's a great player and works his ass off,” said Booker. “It's great to be compared to someone like that.”
Booker has worked with Crosby at a pass rusher summit in Las Vegas and FaceTimed with him a few times. He’s taken the advantage of the opportunity to pick Crosby’s brain and says the No. 1 thing he’s learned is how Crosby prepares.
NFL
“Everything he does it's full intent of getting better,” Booker said. “When we were doing the walk throughs and the warmups at the camp, he was fully locked in on his stretching out and things like that. Just seeing how he moves and takes care of business."
The similarities don’t end with the skillset or relentless motor, either. Both players were day three draft picks. Crosby went to the Raiders in the fourth round of the 2019 draft, and the Bears picked Booker in the fifth round of this year’s draft. Crosby also got his start working with assistant line coach Travis Smith in Oakland. Smith is now the defensive line coach for the Bears, helping Booker.
“Just knowing he was at Oakland five years ago and took that chance on Maxx Crosby really excites me and interests me,” Booker said moments after the Bears drafted him. “I know I'll be in good hands going forward.”
Smith recognizes some of those similarities, but doesn’t want Booker to get caught up in them.
“He’s got to be Austin Booker,” Smith said. “Because the heart of Maxx Crosby is Maxx Crosby. Austin Booker has got to make his own name to be himself, and he’s got to set the standard of who he’s going to be.”
Booker recognizes that, too.
“I'm my own player and I have my own feel and hopefully I can make my own legacy like him.”
The Bears will need players to step up in their pass rush rotation behind both Montez Sweat and DeMarcus Walker. There will be opportunities for extra snaps on third downs when the team likes to kick Walker to the interior of the line. Just like it’s probably too early to really call Booker the next Crosby, it’s probably too early to say whether he’ll make a major impact on the Bears defense this year. But the Bears never put ceilings on players, and if Booker continues to impress, he could play himself into more snaps than expected this season.