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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Days before the NFL draft in April, Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was beginning to build chemistry with his top three wide receivers in a workout he organized in Los Angeles.
Knowing that he would soon be selected by the Bears with the No. 1 overall pick (which general manager Ryan Poles confirmed was the team’s decision after Williams’ top-30 visit), the former USC quarterback invited veterans DJ Moore and Keenan Allen to a throwing session near where he lives and trains in Southern California.
Rome Odunze, the Washington receiver who led FBS with 1,640 yards as a consensus first-team All-American, was also in the area training and got the invite from Williams to make it a four-person workout.
No one could be certain at the time that Odunze would become the third member of this receiver trio, but even in the moment, Moore felt a sense of serendipity.
“I had the offense for a few days, so I kind of knew everything that was going on with the offense, the ins and outs of it,” Moore said. “So, when I got out there, I was just helping [Williams] along, he was asking questions, Rome was asking questions. I was like, ‘Do y’all know something we don’t know out here and you’re both coming?'”
The Bears’ plans to bolster their wide receiver room even further after trading for Allen in March meant using the No. 9 overall pick on Odunze. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound wideout was a player the Bears had to have, so much so that Poles had to be talked out of trading up for him by assistant general manager Ian Cunningham after fearing that Odunze would not be available when Chicago was back on the clock after taking Williams at No. 1.
Odunze, who in his youth would spend hours watching Devin Hester punt return highlights on YouTube, was the third receiver taken, after Arizona selected Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Giants drafted Malik Nabers.
How seamlessly he would fit into Chicago’s receiving corps and what he would mean for Williams’ development as an NFL quarterback was apparent to Poles from the time he watched Odunze dazzle for 120 yards and two touchdowns against Washington State last November.
It didn’t take long for Odunze’s new teammates to come to that same conclusion.
“He’s been with the 1s right off the bat,” Allen said in June. “He’s running around pretty good. His routes — he knows what he’s doing — his responsibilities.
“… We haven’t even got to training camp and he already kind of knows where to go, where to line up, where to be at. So that’s huge.”
Incorporating Odunze into a position group with Moore, who posted a career-best 1,364 receiving yards in 2023, and Allen, who in his 11th NFL season topped 1,243 yards (the second most of his career), creates a level of strength the Bears haven’t seen from their wide receiver unit since the 2012 season, when Chicago boasted a top-five passing offense featuring Pro Bowl receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey.
The abundance of riches Chicago now boasts is an anomaly. Outside of Moore, no Bears wide receiver had more than 414 receiving yards or one touchdown in 2023.
“I went from I don’t know who was here [to] now you got Keenan, Rome, you got Velus [Jones Jr.], you got Tyler [Scott],” Moore said. “You got endless playmakers in there. Like I said, it’s probably going to be a race to 1,000 [yards] now. I don’t know who’s going to get there first, but it’s going to be a race.”
Odunze is expected to be firmly in that mix. Once training camp practices begin Saturday, the Bears can further the process of forming various roles for their top wideouts.
How quickly Odunze picked up the offense during OTAs and minicamp will allow the Bears to continue to add more to the rookie’s workload in camp.
While players stretched during the second day of mandatory minicamp in June, coach Matt Eberflus approached Odunze to inquire about the rookie’s plans to continue his learning process over the summer.
“He likes to actually go on the field and recite the play and put himself in the position and the motion and the route as part of his conditioning,” Eberflus said. “I think that’s a really good way for him, and I think that was really mature on his part to be able to actually discern and understand how he learns best. 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.”
At the culmination of his first six weeks with the Bears, Odunze laid out his summer plans, which included a stop back at home in Las Vegas to visit family and friends, some of whom would be put to task to help the rookie further his education on Chicago’s offense.
Odunze said his parents would carry on their tradition of helping him master an offensive install by calling out plays — even outdoors in 115 degree Vegas heat — while the receiver aims to master the Bears’ route tree.
“I have some habits that I like to do during the offseason,” he said. “I love to get the playbooks, get the installs, and I love to go out there and just run through the routes, the route tree and have my mom or my dad or somebody say the playcall to me, and I go line up or go out and run the route.”
That process was critical for Odunze’s development in becoming one of college football’s top wide receivers and a top-10 pick in the draft, preparation he believes will contribute to making an early impact as a rookie.
“I think my name’s going to be called in those big moments,” Odunze said. “I feel confident in that, and I think I have the confidence and the ability to make those plays when they come up and when my name is called. I think it’s something you just prepare for.
“It’s like Kobe [Bryant] always [said], he never took a shot in the game that he hadn’t took a thousand times in practice. And I think that’s really true. We go out there and we practice super hard and put ourselves in tough situations, so when we get in the game it feels like you’re there in the present doing your job.”