From Keenan Allen’s perspective, Chicago Bears rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze looks better than he did heading into his first NFL training camp.
Allen is one of the most notable new players joining the Bears for the 2024 season and has generated an understandable amount of excitement with more than 10,500 career receiving yards to his name. So long as Allen stays healthy, he should be a top asset for quarterback Caleb Williams as he embarks on his rookie season with the Bears in 2024.
But Allen also recognizes the star potential in Odunze — the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft — and feels the rookie is already farther along than Allen was when he entered the league as a third-round pick in 2013 with the then-San Diego Chargers.
“He’s a little bit better than me when I came in,” Allen told reporters on July 20. “He’s faster, he comes out of his breaks better than I did when I was that young. He looks more polished than I was as a receiver. I was only on Year 2 as a receiver coming into the NFL.”
Considering Allen caught 71 passes for 1,046 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie for the Chargers, his assessment of Odunze should carry weight with the Bears faithful. Still, it could prove challenging for Odunze to produce at quite the same level during his 2024 rookie season with both Allen and star DJ Moore in the mix.
What Are Reasonable Expectations for Rome Odunze in 2024?
There is no denying the Bears believe Odunze has an ultra-high ceiling and long-term star potential for their offense. General manager Ryan Poles even felt so strongly about Odunze that he nearly tried trading up from the ninth overall pick to land him before his assistant GM, Ian Cunningham, talked him into staying put and patient at No. 9.
While Odunze is now a foundational building block for the Bears offense, though, it is fair to wonder just how much of a role he will have with the team as a rookie in 2024.
Odunze is the No. 3 wide receiver behind Moore and Allen, who are both veterans with multiple 1,000-yard seasons on their resumes. Moore returns as Chicago’s No. 1 receiver after catching 96 passes for 1,364 yards and 8 touchdowns — all career-highs — in his first season with the Bears. And Allen, even at 32 years old, has plenty of gas left in the tank to be their No. 2 perimeter starter.
A fairer way to look at it might even be Moore as the 1A and Allen as the 1B since both would be the No. 1 receiver on several other rosters around the NFL.
The Bears also have several non-wideout targets who will allow them to spread the ball around. They signed running back D’Andre Swift, in part, due to his pass-catching prowess, adding him to the fold alongside Roschon Johnson (who finished with a third-most 34 receptions on the Bears in 2023). They also added veteran tight end Gerald Everett (2,833 career receiving yards) alongside emergent receiving threat Cole Kmet.
Odunze should still have his chances to make an impression, but chasing a 1,000-yard season as a rookie — as Allen did — will be challenging with a fully healthy roster.
Rome Odunze Back at Practice After Missing 1st Day
The Bears did not have Odunze on the practice field on July 20 when they hosted their first practice of training camp. The team excused him due to unspecific personal reasons, but he returned for the subsequent two practices and seemed to slide right back into the fold without missing a beat.
During the July 22 practice, Odunze even had a catch that The Athletic’s Adam Jahns flagged as one of the highlights of the day. He caught a pass from Williams over the middle during their 11-on-11 segment that looked to be a “potential catch-and-run” touchdown and he added another catch during their two-minute drill.
The Bears have not even put on pads yet, meaning everything — both good and bad — coming out of training camp should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it is encouraging to Bears fans that Odunze is not only back in the fold after just one missed session but is also already having noteworthy connections with the Bears’ other first-round rookie.
