Bears sign Williams, Odunze to rookie contracts

The Chicago Bears have locked down their first-round draft picks. Rookies Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze both signed their rookie contracts Tuesday.

Both players reported to training camp at Halas Hall in Lake Forest and signed the dotted line on their first professional contracts. They should be ready to hit the field for the first day of practice Saturday.

The Bears drafted Williams with the No. 1 overall pick and then took Odunze eight spots later at No. 9 overall. Both contracts are four years in length. Williams will reportedly make $39 million with a $25.5 million signing bonus. Odunze reportedly signed for $22.7 million with a $13.3 million signing bonus.

Entering the week, Williams and Odunze had been among the NFL’s five first-round picks who were unsigned. All first-round picks have a fifth-year team option on their contracts. So the deals could keep Williams and Odunze in Chicago through 2027, with a team option for 2028. The team will have to decide whether to exercise the option following the 2026 season.

In general, NFL rookies don’t have much control over how much money they receive in their first contract. Drafted rookies are slotted into specific salaries based on where they were selected in the draft, per the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Total salary figures are set, and there’s not much a rookie can do about it.

There are, however, a few things rookies can negotiate. The biggest one is when they will be paid their signing bonus. They also can negotiate some of the language that could void guaranteed money in their contracts (as Roquan Smith did in 2018), and they can haggle over offset language should the team release them before the contract expires.

Signing Odunze and Williams ahead of the first practice Saturday was clearly general manager Ryan Poles’ top priority this week. They were the only two remaining Bears draft picks who had not yet signed their contracts.