Bear Digest

Bears Finding Rome Odunze Worthy of His High Draft Slot

The ninth pick in the draft stood out to coach Matt Eberflus during offseason work whether against starters or backup defensive backs.

Gene Chamberlain

Rome Odunze's route running, speed and ability to learn quickly has impressed coaches as well as offensive and defensive teammates.
Rome Odunze's route running, speed and ability to learn quickly has impressed coaches as well as offensive and defensive teammates. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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Bears coach Matt Eberflus came up with one name in particular when asked which player jumped out at him during minicamp.

"I would say Rome," Eberflus said.

Rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze, the ninth pick in the 2024 draft, capped off his minicamp with a handful of nice receptions at the last practice, including one on a timing route to the back corner of the end zone that had Bears defenders shaking their heads in disbelief.

"Rome really impressed us in terms of his ability to grab concepts and really execcute for sure for sure," Eberflus said. "But again, there's a lot of guys that impressed us."

Odunze had to overcome a slight injury from rookie camp but needed only a short time at OTAs for this to occur and he flashed skills at every minicamp practice.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson identified Odunze's top college strength as immediately obvious.

"I would say probably his contested catch is pretty good," Johnson said. "I know a lot of his highlights I've seen, of course in college, where him going up top and making some very good contested catches, even against my Utes there were some pretty dang good catches he made.

"Really watching his game, I feel like he's truly a gamer. When the lights come on and it's time to go, he's going to make a play. I feel like he showed that in college. I feel like now just showing flashes of him making plays in the air, when the ball is in the air him going and getting it and making the tough catches, I feel like that's something he's going to bring and add a lot of value to our team."

When actually running routes and catching passes, Odunze is ahead of the game it seems.

"Only having so many reps, I think it's really good," Eberflus said. "I think it's almost exceptional because he's really doing a good job with a lot of things.

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"We are putting him in different positions. He's moving around. Sure, he has the, 'Oh shoot, I'm on this side. I should be on that side.' That's all learning process. But heโ€™ll get that."

Eberflus thinks Odunze will continue to progress because he has his own routine for learning the offense, the plays and his routes. He described it to Eberflus when asked and it involves actually reciting the the play to himself and then going through it in motion.

"The part about being a good learner is knowing how you learn best," Eberflus said. "I think he knows himself really well.

"Very mature for his age. He's a wonderful teammate and he's going to be exciting to watch."

None of this has surprised slot cornerback Kyler Gordon, one of Odunze's former teammates at Washington.

"I remember his freshman year against (Washington State) Odell, back of the end zone, just one hand, like, a freshman we've never seen," Gordon said. "He's long, lanky, got some speed in him, so from then I'm like, 'Yeah, he's gonna be one of our guys here at U-Dub.' He's just grown so much."

From the way they've described Odunze's start, they could all be talking about Odunze in his rookie year the way Gordon talked about his freshman year at Washington.

"When I first seen him, I was like, 'He can move,'" wide receiver DJ Moore said. "And I didn't know he was that fast until I saw him in person, and how smooth he was.

"I'm just looking forward to him being out there."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.