If Bears quarterback Caleb Williams truly is on his way to the moon this season, wide receiver Rome Odunze needs to be the rocket booster that helps him get there.
Odunze has been fine his first two seasons, but he aspires for more than that and the Bears expected more when they drafted him ninth overall in 2024. Teams hope they’re landing a perennial All-Pro in that range, and the Bears certainly envisioned that when they took Williams and Odunze in the top 10.
While Williams’ arrow was indisputably pointed upwardly at the end of last season, the outlook on Odunze wasn’t so clear. He suffered a stress fracture in his right foot early in the season, missed five games and was hindered by the injury in others. He finished fourth on the team in catches (44), third in yards (661) and tied for first in touchdowns (six).
Decent numbers, but again, No. 9 picks need to be better than that. If Williams hadn’t been the No. 1 pick in that same class, there’d be a lot more heat on Odunze at this stage.
He didn’t crack the top 25 in catches, yards or touchdowns last season, and among wide receivers in his draft class, he’s sixth in catches and fifth in yards and touchdowns through two seasons. The intense spotlight on Williams has given him some cover.
As Odunze heads into a pivotal season, both from the Bears’ perspective as they usher him fully into the No. 1 receiver role after trading DJ Moore and from his own as he vies for a major contract extension, the picture remains cloudy.
Not only has Odunze yet to prove he’s a true No. 1 threat — “I truly believe I can be one of the best in the league, so until I go out there and do that, I’m not satisfied,” he told the Sun-Times in February — but he also indicated Wednesday his foot simply isn’t going to be what it was before the injury.
Odunze laughed when asked if there was a point in the offseason when he felt back to “normal” running on his foot and said there’s no such thing.
“This is my new normal,” he said. “It’s not from a standpoint that I’m always in pain but the way my foot broke… creates a different type of foot structure with those bones — different types of things that kind of shift things around.
“I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to prohibit me from making plays but … it’s never really back to ‘normal.’”
Odunze was confident about his future nonetheless, and coach Ben Johnson said Wednesday, “He looks pretty good right now,” but there’s a long way to go to the season opener, let alone the 17-game schedule.
That’s certainly a concern worth monitoring, but setting it aside for the moment, Odunze has a lot of work to do even if he stays healthy.
No matter what Johnson says about the Bears being stacked with playmakers, every quarterback needs a game-changing wide receiver. When Johnson was with the Lions, they gave Jared Goff a dynamic weapon in Amon-Ra St. Brown. Just this week, the Patriots found that type of wide receiver for quarterback Drake Maye, who went two picks behind Williams in 2024, by trading for Eagles six-time 1,000-yard receiver A.J. Brown.
The Bears’ swing at finding someone like that was using a premium draft pick on Odunze.
Everything from his and Williams’ rookie season is a tangled mess, and it’s hard to make much of an evaluation on him amid the dysfunction under former coach Matt Eberflus and Williams’ ups and downs that year.
Odunze sharpened his route running under Johnson last season, but his chemistry with Williams was still shaky and his hands weren’t as reliable as they should be. Odunze officially had only three drops — one that would’ve been a touchdown against the Rams in the playoffs — but there were other balls he felt he should’ve caught.
Of the 90 passes thrown to Odunze in the regular season, he caught just 48.9% — 73rd among the 78 players at his position who got at least 50 targets. It didn’t help that Williams had accuracy problems and finished last in completion percentage (58.1) and second-to-last in on-target throws (69.8), so they share blame.
Odunze said preoccupation with pain in his foot sometimes affected his concentration and he struggled to adapt to playing while hurt, but that didn’t excuse any lapses. As he said in February, “In this league, you either do or you don’t.”
While Williams draws the bulk of the attention, the Bears are watching Odunze closely. With Moore gone, it’s time for him to take the lead, and it’s hard to envision Williams taking the next step without Odunze taking one, too.
