CHICAGO (WGN) — Austin Booker balled out and the quarterbacks not named Caleb Williams looked solid in the Chicago Bears’ preseason opener against the Miami Dolphins.
Here are five takeaways from the Bears on Sunday afternoon.
1. Austin Booker
No one was more impressive on the field Sunday for the Bears than second-year defensive end Austin Booker.
“[He’s] just a menace. You really feed off of that, those negative plays like that. That’s obviously a huge thing in terms of ending drives,” Johnson said of Booker’s performance. “We’re always looking to pick each other up, and you could certainly feel his impact on the game today.”
The former fifth-round pick out of Kansas State put his high motor and pursuit skills on full display en route to 6 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 tackles-for-loss, 4 QB hits and a forced fumble against the Dolphins.
“I feel like I looked in the mirror, improved myself, and just came back [to] do what I did,” Booker said postgame.
2. Backup quarterbacks looked good
Aside from two three-and-outs to begin the game and a tipped pass that turned into a Tyson Bagent interception, the combination of Bagent-Case Keenum-Austin Reed performed admirably in their first preseason game of 2025.
Those three quarterbacks combined to go 26-39 for 224 yards, 3 TD passes and 1 INT.
Keenum, who threw for 80 of those yards and two touchdowns, said he liked what he saw from Bagent after a less-than-ideal start to the first half.
“I really like how he responded to not [having] the start that we wanted,” Keenum said. “There’s just a lot of things that go on in a football game. You plan, you have a first 15 [plays] and openers that you want the game to start [with] and go that way. But when it doesn’t, it’s how do you react? How do you respond? And he responded. He stayed the course.”
Bagent was sacked and went 2-4 for 13 yards during those first two three-and-outs, but rebounded to lead a 16-play, 93-yard touchdown drive that ended with a nice TD pass to Maurice Alexander in the back left corner of the end zone.
He also redeemed himself after a pass intended for Samori Toure was tipped and intercepted by the Dolphins’ Patrick McMorris.
With six seconds left on the clock in the second quarter, Bagent rifled a pass to Luther Burden III, who scooted out of bounds with one second remaining. Cairo Santos booted a 57-yard field goal as time expired to give Chicago its second scoring drive of the first half.
“Heads up play by [Burden]. He had space, he was able to race and get out of bounds with one second to go,” Bagent said. “Then you got to see how strong Cairo got in the off-season. I thought that was huge.”
3. Noah Sewell and Ruben Hyppolite will continue to duke it out over who becomes the Bears’ SAM linebacker
Tremaine Edmunds and TJ Edwards are bona fide starters at the MIKE and WILL linebacker spots, but who gets the most snaps at SAM is still to be determined.
Noah Sewell and Ruben Hyppolite II both made good cases for themselves Sunday.
Sewell and Hyppolite both notched six tackles and a tackle-for-loss against Miami. Both received credit for a TFL on they stuffed Dolphins running back Jaylen Wright for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal.
“I think that was outstanding by the whole crew. They came out, they were gassed up and ready to go,” Johnson said of the goal line stop. “A little bit of that bend don’t break, where Miami was able to matriculate their way down in there tight, and yet, our guys held firm at the end of the day. I thought, from the entire unit, it was a great way to start the game.”
4. Tory Taylor and Cairo Santos impressed
Punter Tory Taylor boomed punts from the get-go Sunday. The Australian punter and former All-American at Iowa was called into service three times Sunday, and averaged 52.3 yards per punt.
Santos, as aforementioned, drilled a clutch 57-yarder to end the first half for his lone field goal attempt of the afternoon.
“Cairo coming through with a big kick. That was pretty strong,” Johnson said. “I was joking with him, shoot, man, we probably didn’t need that many yards. We could have kicked it from back up, the way he nailed that thing.”
5. Kyle Monangai
Kyle Monangai was one of three running backs to get six or more carries Sunday, but he paced the group with 30 yards on the ground at 5.0 yards per carry. He stood out not only as a physical runner, but as a willing blocker in pass protection too.
“He’s very downhill. Rarely does the first guy tackle him, and he’s always falling forward,” Bagent said. “That, coupled with the ball security, I think it’s really most of what you would want from a running back.”