During a preseason that seems to claim a new Bears player to injury almost each practice day, Rome Odunze stands tall for one reason — he hasn’t gone down.
The receiver who declared during the Bears’ offseason program that his once-injured foot had become a “new normal” has played every relevant down in practice. He feels, and looks, healthy. He’s fast down the field and quick with his cuts. He runs decisively.
“I don’t feel it …” he said. “I don’t really think about it.”
His coaches do, and remember to watch Odunze’s gait. This far it looks the same as it did early last season, before a series of foot injuries held him out for five regular-season games and limited in even more.
“I’m always looking — but I haven’t seen anything — anything,” receivers coach Antwaan Randle El said Wednesday. “He’s been running smooth, getting out of his routes, and doing everything we’ve asked him to do.”
Odunze and the Bears’ training staff developed a routine that has kept his right foot, in which he suffered a stress fracture last year, feeling good. The only pain he’s felt is soreness from running around in cleats for hours at a time, and that’s common for most players.
The proof of his return to health has shown up in the speed board that shows players who ran the fastest in that each day’s practice. Odunze is regularly near the top.
Now he needs to do what the Bears drafted him in the first round to do — be the team’s No.1. receiver. They can decide as soon as January whether to pick up his fifth-year option — or let him leave after 2027. For all the buzz about Luther Burden entering camp — coach Ben Johnson said he’d buy stock in the second-year former second-round pick — Odunze is the prototypical lead receiver. He’s 6-3, 214 pounds with tremendous jumping ability.
The Bears picked Odunze for his ability to use his size to make contested catches, whether they be deep shots or red-zone jump balls.
“The 1-on-1, 50-50 ball is one of my expertises,” Odunze said.
Head coach Ben Johnson is notorious for saying he doesn’t want to throw 50-50 balls; he wants to draw up plays that make them more like a 90-10. But the team has put in more deep shots this year than they had in the playbook last year, offensive coordinator Press Taylor said.
That’s because of Odunze.
“You see the explosion in his game,” Taylor said. “You see the contested catch ability that he has. … We’ve made it a point of emphasis to try to push the ball down the field on some contested go balls because that’s obviously a strength of his. That’s something we didn’t feature much as a coaching staff last year.”
Inside the red zone, a duo of Odunze and tight end Colston Loveland will make defenses choose between whom they want to double-team — and who they want to leave in man coverage for a jump ball. In seven-on-drills Wednesday, Odunze caught two touchdowns from quarterback Caleb Williams in red zone situations.
The Bears’ strength is their roster of skill position players on offense. Without Odunze, though, the wide receiver room gets shallow fast. Burden is rehabbing a groin injury but is expected to back for the start of the season and Kalif Raymond is a veteran with speed. Jahdae Walker has half a season’s worth of experience and Zavion Thomas is a rookie.
Entering his third season, Odunze should be treated like a veteran.
“I think you’re seeing a little bit even more detail in his routes show up as we’ve gone — that’s to be expected,” Taylor said. “It’s Year 3. He’s heard all the coaching points on this. He understands where he’s supposed to be when he’s supposed to be there.”
The same can be said of two receivers that will line up on the opposite sideline from Odunze in Thursday’s joint practice. The Washington alum considers the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to be among the best wide receivers in the sport.
Odunze plans to steal a few glimpses at what the two do best.
“Tee just moves so well for his height,” Odunze said. “He’s fluid in and out of his routes, and then he, you know, he has tremendous catch-point radius, going up contested catch. I feel like Ja’Marr is just like incredible after the catch as well, some of the catches that he makes over the middle as well as his go-ball chemistry [quarterback] with Joe [Burrow] — [that’s] something I’m looking to get and display with Caleb as well.”
So far, he looks the part, which is a relief.
“It’s good to see,” Randle El said.
