Bears WR Rome Odunze earns noteworthy recognition ahead of 2025 NFL season

The Chicago Bears are one of the most interesting teams in the NFL in 2025. It’s what comes with an offseason that included massive changes throughout the organization, beginning with the hiring of Ben Johnson as head coach.

Johnson’s offensive genius brings a renewed sense of confidence in Caleb Williams and the Bears’ upside on offense. It’s a unit that boasts its fair share of skill players, ranging from DJ Moore to Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet, and rookies Luther Burden and Colston Loveland.

But it’s Odunze who is consistently named as a likely breakout player under Johnson’s watch, including in a recent Pro Football Sports Network breakdown of every team’s 2025 breakout player for fantasy football.

“Odunze was primarily used as a field stretcher in his first season, ranking top 15 among wide receivers in average depth of target (13.8, 11th), deep targets (23, 11th), and air yards (1,398),” PFSN’s Dan Fornek wrote. “Unfortunately, he and Williams connected on just 21.7% of his downfield passes. That gave Odunze the second-most unrealized air yards (917). He also tied for fifth in red-zone targets (17) but caught just three passes.

“New Bears head coach Ben Johnson has a history of optimizing his offense to make sure players are put in situations to succeed. That, combined with the belief that Odunze and Williams can work on timing to make more plays, makes the Chicago WR the most likely player in this offense to break out in 2025.”

This Rome Odunze route was elite #Bears pic.twitter.com/rItJeYGHWT

— Chicago Bears Network (@bearsnetwork_) June 23, 2025

Odunze had a somewhat disappointing rookie season after totaling 54 catches for 734 yards and three scores. But after diving deep into his 2024 film, it’s obvious that the former ninth overall pick has the route-running chops to scorch even the top cornerbacks in the NFL. He just needed a year of seasoning and a coach like Johnson who actually knows what he’s doing when he’s calling plays.

READ: Bears urged to sign pass rusher they missed out on in 2024

The expected improvement from Williams behind a competent offensive line should lead to similar improvement from Odunze, who, if all goes well, could challenge for more than 1,200 receiving yards and double-digit touchdowns. He should officially take the title of the Bears” WR1 away from Moore, too.

If he doesn’t, we’ll be back here next year questioning whether the former Washington Huskies star is yet another Bears’ first-round bust.

Hopefully, we don’t get to that place. Hopefully, the preseason excitement and projections surrounding Odunze are accurate. And, hopefully, he becomes a dominant WR1 in 2025.

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