You can hear the disappointment in Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze’s voice. Odunze stood in front of his locker, not too far removed from the Chicago Bears’ 20-17 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams at Soldier Field.
Odunze caught just two passes on six targets for 44 yards – the same statline that Odunze had in the Bears’ win over the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round. However, Odunze’s stats would have looked different if he caught a Caleb Williams pass on the game’s opening drive, which would have likely ended in a touchdown. Instead, the pass bounced off Odunze and fell incomplete.
"Yeah, I just think I missed the opportunity, really,” Odunze said. “Um, the ball was coming in. I was trying to make a play on it. Judged the ball wrong and didn't end up with it."
A rough night highlighted a rough season overall for Rome Odunze
Two plays later, Rams’ defensive back Cobie Durant intercepted Williams, ending a promising drive. It was a missed opportunity for Odunze and the offense. Something that has been somewhat of a recurring theme for the second-year wide receiver.
“For me, it’s just, I don’t know, obviously it’s a disappointment,” Odunze said. “Like I said, looking back on my career, it’s never been something that has been a prolific thing for me, and I don’t think it’s going to be something prolific going forward. Like I was saying, I feel like I put in a lot of great work this offseason, had a great training camp as well, understanding of the offense and those things. But for me, it just goes back to the work. If those things aren’t coming to fruition, then there’s a reason for that. It’s the work that I need to put in or maybe the routine I need to change or something along those facets to be out there and be the best player possible. For me, it’s just healing up my foot and getting back to work.”
A stress fracture in Odunze’s foot forced the Bears’ wide receiver to miss the final five games of the regular season. He returned for the Wild Card game against the Packers, but Odunze said that the pain was “rough” to play through, but he wouldn’t make excuses for the injury.
Odunze finished the season with 44 catches on 90 targets for 661 yards and six touchdowns. Outside of the touchdowns, Odunze regressed in every category. Which is why the Bears’ wide receiver looked and sounded so disappointed on locker room cleanout day.
"I mean, for me personally, it's just obviously individual-wise, umm, you know wasn't the season I wanted to have,” Odunze said. “Um, and you know, when the season comes to an end, a lot of those emotions kind of come, you know, flushing through, but for me it's just, you know, it really hurts just to not being (slight pause) coming through in some of those moments throughout the whole season. It's not just last night. It's, you know, several different plays. Not to say that I didn't help the team.
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I'm not going to sit here and say, you know, 'I drove us down. I'm the reason.' It's not the attitude that I have, but when I'm not making the plays that I feel like I can make and being the player that I feel like that I am in this league, it's disappointing. Um, not only for myself and my individual goals but for my teammates. The guys that I bleed with, I go to war with every week, so yeah."