'You either do or you don't': Bears WR Rome Odunze harsh critic of himself despite improvement

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bears were happy with wide receiver Rome Odunze’s growth this season, and his production was up across the board before plantar fasciitis and a stress fracture in his right foot derailed him in November.

Odunze, though, didn’t see it as a success and refused to blame it on injuries. His season was “absolutely” an underachievement and, as a whole, he hasn’t played up to his potential since the Bears drafted him ninth overall two years ago.

“I truly believe I can be one of the best in the league, so until I go out there and do that, I’m not satisfied,” Odunze told the Sun-Times while promoting Sharpie ahead of the Super Bowl. “That’s what I’m working toward.

“You go through certain circumstances during the season like injuries, but in this league, you either do or you don’t. And I’m looking forward to doing a lot more.”

Odunze is being a little hard on himself by not taking into account that he was hurt and that the Bears were a total mess offensively his rookie season and were learning a new offense under coach Ben Johnson this season.

He’s correct, though, on the expectations. Anytime a team drafts a wide receiver in the top 10, it’s projecting him as an elite difference maker, and the Bears have rarely taken that swing. Before Odunze, their most recent top-10 picks at the position were Kevin White in 2015, David Terrell in 2001 and Curtis Conway in 1993.

Odunze did emerge as Bears’ the No. 1 receiver and led them with 44 catches for 661 yards and six touchdowns before getting hurt, but he has yet to assert himself in the top tier of the NFL.

He was 48th in catches, 28th in yards and 11th in touchdown catches at the time. Seahawks star Jaxon Smith-Njigba already had more than double Odunze’s yardage, and three of the players ahead of Odunze in yardage were wide receivers from his draft class or the 2025 rookies.

When he returned for the playoffs, his foot still was in “rough” shape and the injuries hindered his conditioning. He caught two passes for 44 yards in each of the games and had a maddening drop near the goal line early in the divisional-round loss to the Rams that still bothers him.

Johnson’s vision for the passing attack isn’t to concentrate on one star like the Bengals did this season with Ja’Marr Chase getting 185 targets. He wants a balanced attack for quarterback Caleb Williams, and the Bears seem to have the pieces for that between Odunze, DJ Moore, Luther Burden III, Colston Loveland, Cole Kmet and their running backs.

But a game-breaking deep threat is a necessity, as shown by the teams playing in Super Bowl LX on Sunday with Smith-Njigba and the Patriots’ Stefon Diggs, and Odunze must be that for the Bears to open things up underneath. He certainly has the capability.

The foot injuries will slow him down this offseason, but the upside is they won’t require surgery and he doesn’t anticipate missing any practice time. Odunze expects to be running again by early March.

“It’s not terrible,” he said. “It is going to delay it because I want to be perfectly healthy before I get into intense training, but it’ll be worth the wait.”

Once Odunze is back on the field, the pressure is on to live up to what he and the Bears believe he can be. They drafted him to be Williams’ go-to weapon, and while there have been glimpses of how dangerous that can be, the Bears need that combination to be at full force next season.