Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze started his second NFL season on fire, with five touchdowns in the first four games. Then his production waned, and it was eventually revealed he had been playing with a stress fracture in his foot for weeks.
Odunze eventually missed the final five regular season games last season due to the injury, and Year 2 went into the books as a disappointment.
For multiple reasons, this season is a huge one for Odunze. He broadly needs to put it all together and show why he was a top-10 overall pick, and the Bears have a decision to make on his fifth-year option next spring. If he underachieves again, his long-term future in Chicago will be cast into doubt.
Yahoo! fantasy football analyst Matt Harmon has ranked his top-15 wide receivers 25 years of age and under entering the 2026 season, with the noted removal of the list being a strict fantasy ranking, as might be expected.
Optimism drives Rome Odunze's place in ranking of young WRs
Harmon has generally been an Odunze supporter this offseason, in large part (and rightfully so, with evidence to back it up) blaming last year's decline in production on the foot injury. That optimism carried into his ranking of the league's top young wide receivers heading into the season, as he put Odunze at No. 8.
Harmon acknowledged the easy perception of where he ranked Odunze.
"I bet this will likely be viewed as my most aggressive and controversial ranking. However, I have seen more than enough to place Rome Odunze at this position. In the first eight weeks of the season, he ranked 19th in yards per route run, 15th in yards per game and trailed only Amon-Ra St. Brown, Michael Pittman Jr., Davante Adams and George Pickens in touchdown catches. Frankly, I believe his film is even better than some of those numbers indicate; he remains one of the more talented young wideouts in the game, especially if he can clean up some mistakes at the catch point from 2025."
"He popped up on the injury report heading into Week 9 with what ultimately turned out to be a foot/heel injury that ruined his season. Had that not happened, I don't think this ranking would seem strange at all. Odunze can separate at will as an X-receiver but is versatile and smart enough to move all over the field and play multiple roles, as he did before the foot injury."
This time last year, Odunze was the subject of all kinds of well-founded breakout buzz. As frustrating as it was to watch at times after that fast start last season, it took a fairly significant lingering injury to keep it from coming to fruition.
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Now healthy, with his prior comments about the impact of his foot injury fully clarified, it's wheels back up for Odunze with fewer eyes on him overall. If there's going to be a driver of the post-hype train, beyond the closest orbit around the Bears, Harmon has advanced himself as the one, and he's officially all the way (back) in.
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