Over the first month of last season, with five touchdowns in four games, it looked like Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze was going to fully pay off his preseason breakout buzz. But then came a downturn, driven by what was later revealed to be a stress fracture in his foot, which he had been playing through.
While Odunze recently invited concerns with candid comments about his foot, it's also easy to be optimistic about his outlook for 2026. The foot injury clearly took away his ability to gain separation from defensive backs. Though he was able to return for the playoffs after missing the final five regular season games, he was clearly not operating at full strength.
In fantasy football terms for this year, Odunze could provide a nice return on investment ifhis current ADP (WR28 or WR29 depending on scoring format) holds up through the teeth of draft season. The term "post-hype sleeper" is most often coined in fantasy baseball, but it applies to Odunze here.
Fantasy analyst is as all-in as can be on Rome Odunze in 2026
Thomas Carelli of SI.com included Odunze on his recent list of three third-year wide receivers who are lined up to have career years and "flower anew" in fantasy.
"Odunze is good, and Caleb Williams has seen that clear as day. Odunze had a great 2025 season in which he played 14 games, drawing 99 targets (7.1 per game) and catching 48 passes for 15.6 yards per reception and 6 touchdowns. The departure of DJ Moore will now bring Odunze into a new realm of football, with a few tweaks to be set forth by Ben Johnson."
"The glaring weakness in the Williams-Odunze connection was that of efficiency. While Odunze had 99 targets, he caught less than 48% of those passes. That cannot even be Odunze's fault, as he accounted for just 5 total dropped balls."
A high average depth of target (seventh-highest among wide receivers with at least 40 targets last season, according to Pro Football Focus), a dose of "he should have caught that" and Williams' inconsistent accuracy has led to inefficiency for Odunze over his first two seasons.
If his foot is healthy and Williams improves his accuracy like expected, Odunze should have nice numbers this season. Carelli finished his analysis by going all the way in on that notion.
"Ben Johnson is the best offensive mind in the NFL. It can be debated, but if not the best, he is top-3. It would be rash not to expect Odunze to play much more efficient football in 2026. He can easily catch in excess of 70 footballs for 1,300+ yards and double-digit touchdowns."
Last year, 70 catches for 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns would have been the WR7 in full PPR, WR6 in 0.5-point PPR, and WR5 in standard scoring. So Carelli is basically calling for Odunze to finish as a top-10 fantasy wide receiver this year, if not top-five, if he notably exceeds those baseline numbers.
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Bears' fans, and fantasy managers who are willing to go back to the well, are certainly optimistic about a third-year breakout/rebound for Odunze. But Carelli has shown himself to be as all-in as it gets before the month of June is over, and he's unlikely to be topped by anyone over the rest of the summer.
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