Austin Booker

Year-2 jump: 1.5 sacks as a rookie, 5.5 already in 2025 with 14 QB hits.

Booker's 2024 rookie line was a rotational profile — 11 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 4 QB hits in limited snaps as a 5th-round pick out of Kansas. The 2025 leap is the kind of Year-2 jump teams hope for from late-round edges: 5.5 sacks and 14 QB hits, already nearly 3.7x the rookie pressure output with games left to play.

The TFL count (3 to 6) and tackles (11 to 22) doubled in parallel — this isn't a sacks-only spike, it's a rotation rate plus a pressure rate both moving up at the same time.

14 QB hits in 2025 — for a 5th-round Year-2 edge that's a top-quartile pressure profile.

Late-round edges who post 14+ QB hits in their second season are the exception, not the norm — most 5th-rounders don't even survive past Year-2 rotations. Booker's 2025 has put him in that category.

The ratio matters too: 14 QB hits to 5.5 sacks = pressure he creates more often than he finishes, which historically converts to higher sack totals as he learns to close. The Bears' interior havoc rate has improved correspondingly.

6 TFLs in 2025 — already double his rookie total, and a sign he's not just rushing the passer.

The clean read on Booker is balanced disruption — 6 TFLs and 5.5 sacks means he's affecting both phases. He also has his first career forced fumble in 2025, which gives him a sack-fumble component most pure pass-rushers don't develop until later.

For a Bears defense that has lacked an interior pass-rush threat for years, a sub-25-year-old DL with this trajectory is exactly the kind of cheap, controllable asset that reshapes the roster math.

Career totals: 7 sacks, 18 QB hits, 9 TFLs across 2 seasons.

Across his first 2 NFL seasons (both in Chicago), Booker has accumulated:

- 7.0 career sacks - 18 career QB hits (2.6 hits per sack — high conversion runway) - 9 career TFLs - 33 career tackles - 1 career forced fumble

That's a Year-2 edge defender starting to look like a long-term contributor, not a rotational body. The Bears can plug him in as a designated rusher on pass downs and still trust the run-defense reps.

He's already had more 2025 QB hits (14) than total snaps would predict from his 2024 rate.

Booker's 2024 QB-hits-per-tackle rate was 4 hits / 11 tackles = 0.36. His 2025 rate is 14 hits / 22 tackles = 0.64. The pressure rate has nearly doubled per defensive snap touched.

That's not luck variance — that's a clear technique/role change. Edge rushers who post a per-tackle pressure rate above 0.5 tend to be primary pass-rush threats, not depth pieces. Booker is now playing like the latter category.