Skip to main content
Bear Digest

New Normal for Bears' Rome Odunze Turns Out Not to Be Bad After All

The Bears receiver talked about his foot injury almost in a "chronic" tone during minicamp but now says it's feeling perfectly fine, and shows it at practice.
Gene Chamberlain|
A healthy Rome Odunze goes through stretching at Bears training camp.
A healthy Rome Odunze goes through stretching at Bears training camp. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Rome Odunze set off Bears fans everywhere by claiming his healed broken foot would simply have to be the "new normal," during offseason work.


It wasn't what anyone wanted to hear after he had started so fast in 2025 but then fell off the map with the injury, before returning for the playoffs.


Now, he says he may have overstated things. Odunze thinks his comments on the foot being in a lesser state going forward went a bit overboard.


"I just set up a fastball for y’all (media) and it went with the wind," he said, laughing. "I really didn’t articulate it well, honestly. That’s not really what I meant.

"I just kind of meant that I had an injury. That’s it. That’s football. My foot feels great. My foot feels amazing. The training staff here, the training staffs I work with in the offseason, all the work that I’ve put in to get it right, honestly it’s not even really something that I think about anymore which I think is the best thing I think you can have after an injury."


But the new normal isn't exactly saying he's fine. That's a term for accepting a depleted state.


"I know ‘new normal,’ that has a bunch of connotations of chronic and severe, like it’s never going to be the same," Odunze said. "It’s not like that at all. I’m completely fine.

"I went through my process of recovery and rehab and it’s been great. Obviously I do my due diligence and all those things. Being out sucks. That really is the number one thing as a football player, any athlete, you all know, you don’t want to be out (at) practice, game, whatever it is. Went through my process of getting that right and I feel amazing."


Now the big task for Odunze is being the No. 1 receiver among a group in which Luther Burden's performance says he could do it, while tight end Colston Loveland takes away targets from the wideouts. On a Thursday when the completions were coming all over the field for every receiver from QB Caleb Williams, Odunze was definitely not left behind. He hauled in three damaging throws against the secondary during four full-squad non-padded scrimmage series for the first team. Two went for big gains.

"Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think that’s the duality of playing wide receiver in this league nowadays, especially on a team like this with so many weapons," Odunze said. "You know, I want the ball on every single play, I want to go get my 1,000 (yards), I want to make plays all over the field, but understand

"When the ball doesn’t come my way it’s going to another guy who is trying to go get it just like me. Obviously like we talked about earlier, it’s that competition, but at the same time these are all my brothers, you know, I want them to do well as well and I know that they’re going to put us in a position to succeed and that’s going to divvy out the ball and stats or whatever to everybody else. Obviously the main goal is winning the Super Bowl. You need everybody to do that."

Still, Odunze does have his personal goals.

"Obviously, I want to hit 1,000 yards; that's a big goal of mine," he said. "I want to exceed that for sure. I want double-digit touchdowns; I want over 100 catches. I want to get all of those things done. Those are goals.

"But one specific thing, I honestly just want to put it all together. I think I've done specific things well, I think it's putting it all together for 17-games plus that I really want to get done."

If it's for 17 games and he hits those marks, then the new normal will be better than the old normal.

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

Home/News