Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles had the kind of draft class in the 2024 NFL draft that most general managers can only dream of. With the first overall pick (provided by the Carolina Panthers in their 2023 trade), Poles selected the consensus best quarterback in what was deemed an excellent quarterback class. Then, with his own pick at 9th overall, Poles selected one of the three best receivers in what was also deemed an excellent receiver class.
Arrows are already pointing up for both Caleb Williams and Odunze. Despite a disaster of a season for the team, when you go back and look at individual performances, you'll see that the rookies played pretty well. For Odunze, that included 734 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, which was not much less than his fellow rookie Marvin Harrison Jr., drafted 4th overall by the Arizona Cardinals.
Now, with Williams expected to take a leap forward under the tutelage of head coach Ben Johnson, Odunze has been selected to yet another All-Breakout team. Bucky Brooks, a former NFL player himself and now an analyst for NFL media, compiled a list of offensive players he expects to have breakout seasons in 2025, and Odunze made the cut.
Here's what Brooks had to say about Odunze's future: "As a big-bodied playmaker with sticky hands and rugged running skills, Odunze can excel as a possession receiver in a ball-control offense that frequently targets the middle of the field. With Williams instructed to play on time, the QB should find the second-year receiver early and often, with opponents forced to defend a multi-faceted attack that efficiently mixes run and pass plays with a creative approach."
That's as simple as it gets. Odunze is too talented and too special not to take a big leap forward himself, and the proof of that is in the missed opportunities we saw last year. Whether Odunze was running wrong routes or Williams threw to the wrong spot (or maybe no one knew what they were supposed to do in Shane Waldron's broken-down, useless offense), a lot of meat got left on the bone with passes that landed nowhere near Odunze despite being wide open.
The arrival of Ben Johnson should take care of that. A coach as meticulous as Johnson, who has proven himself to be an offensive guru, should ensure that miscommunications are cleaned up and everyone does the job they're supposed to. Had just a handful of those misfires between Williams and Odunze last year been completed, Odunze could have easily cleared 1,000 yards.
In fact, I would dare to take Brooks' prediction a step further and say that there's a very good chance that Odunze finishes the year as Chicago's WR1, ahead of even D.J. Moore. You just don't see receivers built like him who can move like he does very often, which is why one draft analyst compared him to the legendary Larry Fitzgerald.
If Odunze can get anywhere close to living up to that comparison, then the recent contract extension that Chicago gave to Ryan Poles will almost certainly not be the last.
