Via the savvy trade with the Carolina Panthers that wound up giving them the No. 1 overall pick, the Chicago Bears ended up with two top-10 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. With that, a vision of Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze as two core pieces of the offense until further notice took hold.
Williams and Odunze both got a mulligan for the broken lawn chair that was the Bears' situation during their rookie season. With Ben Johnson's arrival in 2025, things were looking up, and the connection between the two started last season on fire.
But it would not be sustained. Odunze played through a foot injury for several weeks before he finally missed the final five regular season games. He was clearly compromised physically before he was shut down, so the connection with Williams wasn't able to fully bloom.
Odunze's offseason words about the residual implications of his foot injury easily raised eyebrows. For now, though, the concern level regarding more missed time because of it should be low. Having two healthy feet should eliminate a good bit of the drops and the "man, he should have caught that" plays from last season.
Simply put, with (hopefully) underailed growth in play for both guys, the connection between Williams and Odunze should come together as it has been envisioned in Year 3. If it doesn't happen, something got in the way again.
Caleb Williams-Rome Odunze connection has to come together this year
While it would be easy to pair Williams with another Bears' wide receiver in the same context, Daniel Outerbridge of SI.com has Williams and Odunze on his list of the top-five fantasy football stacks to target this year.
"Entering his third NFL season, Williams continues to impress with his immense arm strength and playmaking ability. He anchored a high-octane Bears attack that finished the 2025 season with the league's 6th-ranked total offense, averaging a robust 369.5 total yards per game. Looking ahead, this unit has the potential to take an even greater leap, with major growth expected from Odunze, as he also enters his third year."
"The offense underwent a massive schematic overhaul following the arrival Ben Johnson in the Windy City. Under this new system, the connection between Williams and Odunze has completely blossomed, particularly inside the 20-yard line. Odunze logged an elite red zone target share of nearly 40% last season. Williams' trust in his receiver has risen to the point where he is entirely comfortable feeding Odunze the ball even when defenders have adequate coverage. This rock-solid chemistry firmly secures Odunze's role as the Bears' premier perimeter X-factor and a dominant, high-upside threat in the red zone."
While a lot can (and should) be made about Williams' lack of accuracy, his 13 touchdowns on 20-plus-yard throws last season tied for most in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. PFF also credited Odunze with three of his five drops last season on those same throws, and over two seasons he has just 14 catches on 53 20-plus-air-yard targets. Even if it's a naturally lower-percentage play, that's a rough rate of success.
While Odunze didn't have a red zone target share near 40 percent for the season, as Outerbridge seemed to suggest, all 12 of his red zone looks came between Week 1 and Week 8. Then he played five more games, showing up on the injury report with his foot injury for the first time ahead of Week 9, and it was downhill from there.
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Odunze has a physical profile and skill set no other Bears' pass catcher quite has, and this is a big season for him. It's also time for his connection with Williams to reach the level in line with their draft statuses. If it does, plenty of fantasy championship runs will be fueled on the back of the Bears' stack that may be hiding in plain sight.
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