Rome happy he fell: Odunze wanted to join Williams with Bears
Rome Odunze went into the NFL draft with an open mindset. No matter which team ended up drafting him, Odunze would be happy to get a chance to play in the NFL.
But in the back of his mind, Odunze let himself dream just like any other fan.
He knew the Bears and Caleb Williams were waiting with the No. 9 pick. And as each pick was announced without his name being called on Thursday night, he let himself dream until it finally came true.
He got a call from an Illinois phone number and was drafted by the Bears.
“You always want to be somewhere where you’re wanted, right?” Odunze said while meeting with reporters Friday at Halas Hall. “So I want to be here, they wanted me here and I think it’s a good connection to have.”
That strong connection started when Odunze visited Halas Hall during the pre-draft process. Odunze was impressed by the attitude in the facility and the effort to make his visit special. He liked that the Bears did their research on him, and when he did some on the Bears, it seemed like a perfect fit.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles didn’t doubt that perfect fit. Poles admitted that he started to get nervous whether Odunze would drop to him at No. 9 and Bears assistant general manager Ian Cunningham even had to hold back Poles from trading up to get Odunze.
But once Odunze was waiting there at No. 9, Poles couldn’t hide his excitement for what Odunze could add to the Bears offense.
“He can impact the game at any moment,” Poles said. “If you’re at quarterback, and you’re in doubt, you want to just go give a guy an opportunity to go finish, he’s your guy. He’s done that consistently.”
Odunze will add his skill set to an already talented receivers room. The Bears acquired six-time Pro Bowler Keenan Allen from the Los Angeles Chargers in March to go along with DJ Moore. Allen had 1,243 receiving yards and seven touchdowns with the Chargers last year while Moore caught a career-high 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns with the Bears.
Odunze compared joining a deep Bears wide receivers room to his time with Washington. The Huskies had a strong passing attack that featured two wide receivers with over 1,000 yards — Odunze had 1,640 — that helped them reach the national championship game in January.
He’s hoping history repeats itself with the Bears.
“I think when you have a wide receiving corps like this and a quarterback who can throw the ball to anyone on the field, from any body position from anywhere on the field, it just creates too many problems for defenses,” Odunze said. “It creates holes for defenses and you have a lot of solutions for coverages.”
The new offensive trio of Odunze, Moore and Allen won’t need much time to get acquainted with their new quarterback. The four have spent time over the past few weeks working out together and even had a group chat where Moore and Allen congratulated Williams and Odunze for joining the Bears.
Odunze already took some lessons from those sessions and is hoping to take in as much as he can from Allen both in practice and games.
“I think the sky’s the limit honestly with what I can learn,” Odunze said. “Thirteen years of playing, that’s a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge that he has in that brain on wide receiver plays.”
Odunze is also hoping to change the mindset of the Bears being a traditionally defensive team after Poles added offensive weapons over the last couple off-seasons. That will include rewriting the Bears record books.
Johnny Morris holds the Bears career receiving yards record with 5,059 in 121 games from 1958 to 1967. Odunze had 3,272 receiving yards in 42 games with Washington.
With Williams, Moore, Allen, tight end Cole Kmet and others ready to roll, Odunze is ready for his dream scenario.
“I’m super excited for the attack mindset that we’ll have on offense, the explosiveness that we bring to any football field,” Odunze said. “I think it’ll be special.”