Austin Booker Gives Praise to Bears Rookie Defensive Tackle 

It's tough to argue that there's a more exciting late-round rookie on the Chicago Bears roster than Jordan van den Berg. 

Despite being drafted in the 6th round, van den Berg had some great moments at Georgia Tech, but his best trait is the elite athleticism he provides. When looking at the Relative Athletic Score of van den Berg, he has a perfect score of 10. 

At times these players can be fantastic when working out but not when it comes to actually playing football. However, Austin Booker, who’s now heading into year three, gave him some high praise today.

As Adam Jahns would post on X, “Bears DE Austin Booker on rookie DT Jordan van den Berg: ‘I think we all see it on the field that he's a really good player.’”

For reference, Jahns posted this following yet another encouraging post about van den Berg. This one involved his role on the Bears defense.

In that prior post, Jahns wrote, “Rookie development: the Bears are in the middle of an inside run drill right now and rookie DT Jordan van den Berg was part of the rotation with the starters.”

On the Bears ESPN depth chart right now, the veteran Grady Jarrett is ahead of van den Berg, who’s actually the 4th string over there. Based on the reports coming out already, I’m expecting van den Berg to jump to the 2nd string spot at the least, and there’s also a very real shot that he jumps Jarrett and becomes a starter at some point this year. 

Jordan van den Berg Georgia Tech Production

Although van den Berg wouldn’t start out his career at Georgia Tech, that’s where he played his final two collegiate seasons. Before that, van den Berg was at Penn State for three years, where he wasn’t able to have a season with over one sack or 15 tackles.

That would change at Georgia Tech, where van den Berg had 23 tackles, five tackles for loss, and one sack in 2024. The final season was where we saw solid production out of van den Berg, where he had 44 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and three sacks.

Per PFF, van den Berg was also able to take a sizable leap with his pressures, jumping from eight in 2024 to 21 in 2025.