Bear Digest

Bears Get Rome Odunze Under Contract and Ready for Practice

The No. 9 pick overall in the draft signed his rookie contract on Tuesday as rookies reported to Halas Hall for training camp.

Gene Chamberlain

Rome Odunze catches a throw at minicamp as coach Matt Eberflus looks on. Odunze signed his four-year rookie contract with an option for Year 5 on Tuesday.
Rome Odunze catches a throw at minicamp as coach Matt Eberflus looks on. Odunze signed his four-year rookie contract with an option for Year 5 on Tuesday. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
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The Bears inked a contract with No. 9 overall draft pick Rome Odunze on Tuesday, a day when rookies were all required to be at Halas Hall for the start of training camp.

Getting the Washington wide receiver into camp will enable him to get a head start along with the rest of the rookies on the playbook in advance of when veterans arrive Friday for Saturday's first practice.

Odunze led the nation in receiving yards last season with 1,640 for 94 receptions and had 13 touchdowns. For his career, Odunze had 3,272 yards on 214 receptions and scored 24 touchdowns.

The signing was reported by the team. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said the signing bonus is $13.3 million with the full $22.7 million guaranteed, plus a fifth-year option.

So Odunze will be ready to join in with Keenan Allen and DJ Moore as they try to upgrade the Bears passing game with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

As the Bears left for summer break in June, coach Matt Eberflus called Odunze the one player who had surprised him most with how fast they learned during offseason practices.

"He's playing multiple positions, and I really think that he's going to be able to handle those concepts," Eberflus said. "We all know the benefit of being with the two veterans, seeing those guys, understanding how they operate during the course of a week. That's going to be really good. They're going to help him through training camp because there's wisdom there with years of experience.

"I really believe that he's going to have the ability to take off, because of the other players. You're not going to be able to home in on one guy. Say we just had him, and he was the No. 1 (receiver) right now. You’d be like, 'Wow, they can really do some things to him defensively.' But you're not going to be able to do that versus our crew."

Eberflus just called Odunze a naturally quick learner.

"Some guys just have a knack to do it, right?" he said. "They can see the pictures, the drawings in the classroom, and they can apply that right to the field. He's able to process a bunch of information at the same time and then take it to the field. He's really good that way."

No. 1 overall pick QB Caleb Williams remained unsigned as of early Tuesday afternoon.

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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.