Name: Austin Booker

School: Kansas

Year: Junior

Position: EDGE

Measurables: 6’4 1/2”, 240 lbs. (Combine Measurements)

Combine: ARM: 33 7/8” HAND: 9 1/4” VERTICAL: 32.5” BROAD: 10’0” BENCH: 40-YD DASH: 4.79 10-YD SPLIT: 1.67 20-YD SHUTTLE:

Stats:

Courtesy of Sports-Reference.com

General Info:

Austin Booker was a three-star composite prospect coming out of Center Grove High School in Indiana—but definitely at the upper end of three-stars. He was heavily recruited by P5 schools, including (not limited to) offers from Oregon, Washington, Michigan State, Iowa, Cincinnati, and Arizona. Booker wound up staying in the Midwest, choosing to begin his college career as a Minnesota Golden Gopher.

Booker was redshirted his true Freshman year and did not appear in any games.

As a redshirt freshman in 2022, Booker did see playing time for Minnesota—but extremely limited. Though he appeared in six games, he played few snaps and recorded just 2 total tackles. After the season, presumably frustrated with his playing time, Booker entered the transfer portal. 247-Sports gave him a three-star transfer rating and eventually Booker wound up at another school that was interested in him out of high school: Kansas.

Booker’s single season as a Jayhawk was phenomenal, and enough for him to declare for the draft despite being a redshirt sophomore—and despite starting just one game. After being kept off the stat-sheet in his debut, Booker took over when Kansas hosted Illinois and did not look back. He recorded two sacks in that game, and would finish the season with eight total. Booker also managed 56 tackles (40 solo, 12 for a loss) and two forced fumbles. His performance was a big part of Kansas finishing ranked in the AP 25 at the end of the year for the first time since 2007.

Booker participated in both the 2024 Reese’s Senior Bowl and the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine in the lead up to the NFL Draft. He reportedly had a very solid week of practice at the Senior Bowl, leading to him flying up draft boards. However, his Combine performance, though solid, was a little disappointing and slowed his meteoric rise a little bit. At once point talked about as someone who could potentially fly into the 1st Round, Booker seems most likely to be a day 2 pick.

Positional Skills:

Strengths

Booker is a weird prospect. Even though he didn’t play much in college, “raw” is not the right word to describe him. He has a shockingly refined repertoire of pass-rush moves and uses them effectively. It’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but Booker is well positioned to be an INSTANT contributor as a pass-rush specialist while other elements of his game develop.

Booker was a basketball player in high school, and it shows up in his game. He uses his unusual length (really big wingspan!) very effectively. He can outreach most tackles and uses that to work around blocks really well.

Though the testing was not incredible, film shows a player with agility, speed, and explosiveness. Booker launches off of the line quickly and disrupts plays.

Quite simply, even though it reads as a cop-out instead of actual analysis, Booker is as instinctive, natural of a pass-rusher as I’ve encountered since I started writing these profiles. That’s how he thrived despite the low snap count—he has remarkable feel for how to counter and deal with opposing tackles.

Weaknesses:

 Just one season of significant playtime in college. Booker has the smallest sample size I can remember of a college player who declared early for the draft. Teams do not have a whole lot to go on when trying to project Booker’s NFL success.

For every Hassaan Reddick who thrives as a 240 pound pass-rushers, there are a dozen Shane Rays who just cannot make it in the pros. Booker looks like he has room to fill out his frame and he probably needs to. Finding success at his size is rare.

As you might have figured out based on his size, strength is not a core part of Booker’s game right now. Though functional, he needs to get stronger in the pros. Theoretically, that is very doable—he’s going to have access to NFL quality training and equipment, after all, but there’s always some guys that cannot manage to do it for one reason or another. Booker’s approach in the pros is going to be really important; if he doesn’t put in work, he’s going to flame out. I haven’t seen any concerns about his attitude, but you never know.

Fit with the Packers:

As a draft-eligible prospect, there are some similarities between Booker and former Packers’ great Clay Matthews. Like Booker, there were hefty concerns about Matthews’ experience—he only started the final ten games of his career at USC. They have similar builds (Booker is 6’4”, 240 lbs, Matthews was 6’3”, 240 lbs). Matthews did have slightly better measurables. but that’s why he was a 1st round pick, and while the sky is the limit for Booker, he is unlikely to go in the 1st (though he could sneak into the tail end). Realistically, Booker’s minute career snap total is hugely concerning, and makes him an extremely risky prospect and he is most likely to go late on Day 2, assuming a team isn’t in love with him.

The best landing spot for Booker is a team with established, veteran EDGE rushers that he can learn behind while serving as a pass-rush specialist and a special teams player. Those established, veteran EDGE rushers could, hypothetically, have names like “Preston Smith” and “Rashan Gary!” Maybe you even throw a recent first round pick in there named “Lukas Van Ness!” While Green Bay does not need to spend high picks on a pass-rusher, you can never have enough, especially with Kingsley Enagbare expected to miss most of the year with a torn ACL. I would be thrilled if the Packers added Booker in the third round, as he could be phenomenal depth as a specialist while being able to develop his skills without immediate pressure (except for the pressure he generates). He will need to bulk-up, though, especially if he is in a 4-3 Scheme in the NFL.

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