In the four seasons Rome Odunze was at the University of Washington, he experienced 12 total losses in the regular season.
In Odunze's rookie season alone with the Chicago Bears, the top-10 draft pick endured the same amount of losses, which included a 10-game losing streak.
That was difficult for the Bears’ wide receiver to handle.
“Losing. Losing sucks,” Odunze said. “I don’t like losing, so that was the hardest part.”
Odunze wants the team to experience more success this upcoming season than anything, but there are also areas in his game that he wants to refine. It started with Odunze refining his body by dropping some fat and putting on more lean muscle mass.
The 6-foot-3, 216-pound receiver can already envision how the added strength will benefit his game.
“I think hand-fighting is a big part about it,” Odunze said. “And there’s a lot of nit-picky and kind of grabbing in this league that isn’t always shown, because I felt like I needed to build up upper-body mass to be able to combat some of those things and 50-50 balls as well. Just being able to be physical at the catch point and the top of routes, where it’s not necessarily creating separation through a speed cut, but a nudge or a chicken wing, I felt like was necessary. So that’s why I did it.”
Odunze caught 54 passes for 734 yards and three touchdowns last season. With Keenan Allen no longer a part of the team, Odunze will be asked to do more in head coach Ben Johnson's offense. Roles are still being worked out at this point, but Oduzne will undoubtedly play a huge part in the explosiveness Johnson is looking to create offensively.
Mandatory minicamp came to a close last Thursday, meaning most of the team will take off for the summer and return for training camp in mid July. Odunze will be back at Halas Hall next week for the last portion of OTAs.
Even though it's not mandatory, Odunze felt it's important for him to continue working on his craft. The young wide receiver has lofty goals going into Year 2 and he wants to put in the proper preparation to put him in the best position to meet his own expectations.
“When it comes to goals-wise, I like to think about the team and winning games and making the playoffs,” Odunze said. “Individually, wanna go for 1,000 [yards], double digit [touchdowns]. I haven’t honed in on any specific numbers yet, but I’ve always got those things in the back of my mind. I think when you’re doing the right things and you’re having success, and the team is having success, all the statistics and those numbers will come.”