Early last season, Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze looked set to fully pay off the preseason breakout buzz that had been around him. But then a foot injury, revealed to be a stress fracture, began to hamper him, and it eventually cost him the final five regular season games.
At OTAs this past week, Odunze made a startling admission about his injured foot. The idea of ongoing maintenance/rehab isn't necessarily a big deal, and the full extent of what he said should be noted, but saying that injured foot may never be the same set off alarm bells all over.
"This is my new normal", Odunze said. "And it’s not from a standpoint that I’m always in pain but the way my foot broke there’s callouses in there that like creates a different type of foot structure with those bones—different types of things that kind of shift things around. So my new normal was kind of what I am going into. And I don’t think that’s anything that’s going to prohibit me from making plays but I feel like with the break it’s just like when you tear your AC, it’s never really back to normal."
Bears' beat writer is not (yet) overly concerned about Rome Odunze's foot
On 104.3's The Score's "Mully and Haugh," Dan Wiederer of The Athletic was asked if Odunze's foot situation qualifies as a revelation. And if it is, is the level of concern enough to spur the Bears to sign a veteran wide receiver?
"I don't need to go as far as the latter", Wiederer said, meaning the Bears signing a wide receiver in the wake of Odunze's comments.
That said, Odunze's foot situation is now firmly on Wiederer's radar for training camp.
"I would say that I raised my concern level from minimal to moderate...I made a list of things I wanna put to the eye test when camp begins in August. Rome Odunze's separation and his explosion is on that list now, because he's obviously, volunteered up that his foot doesn't feel the same as it did before the foot injuries, plural, last season, that derailed his season."
Wiederer noted how training camp will say it all about where Odunze is physically, but a player's own words in a situation like this automatically increase the spotlight on him. But Wiederer also thinks the Bears have "answers" if Odunze is slowed at all, which circles back to his opinion that the Bears don't need to sign a veteran wide receiver.
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Bears fans should channel Wiederer's increased-but-not-massive concern about Odunze's foot situation right now. More information from more intensive practices is needed before we discuss any major residual effects or worst-case scenarios.
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