Bears WR Rome Odunze shares positive offseason outlook on foot injury while owning up to shortcomings from his second season
The hot start to 2025 quickly fizzled out for the Bears’ young wide receiver, for multiple different reasons.
While the Chicago Bears’ 2025-26 season went far better than anyone could have expected in the first season under Ben Johnson, the way things abruptly ended still leaves some disappointment that will take time to fully get over.
Instead of preparing for the NFC Championship Game, players went back into the facilities on Monday to clean out their lockers and speak to the media one last time before departing for the offseason.
It’s a part of the season that everyone dreads and now the Bears will have to turn the page to the next season. For one player, there is one positive offseason outlook on the injury front despite what many people were expecting to hear.
Rome Odunze says he will not need offseason surgery to fix stress fracture in his foot
Second-year wide receiver Rome Odunze had a phenomenal start to his sophomore season with the Bears after a strong offseason spent strengthening his connection with quarterback Caleb Williams in a new offensive scheme.
During the first four weeks of the season, Odunze totaled 296 receiving yards and five touchdowns and looked like a breakout star for the Bears offense. Yet, after the Week 4 bye week, Odunze had just one other strong game, a 114-yard outing against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 8.
The following week, Odunze popped up on the injury report for the first time with a heel injury that apparently impacted him before that week. Odunze battled through the injury, with a limited workload and production, for the next four weeks until the team finally decided to shut him down. It was revealed that Odunze was playing through a stress fracture, and one that continued to get worse. Odunze was out of action for the final five games of the regular season until returning for the team’s playoff run, in which he totaled four receptions for 88 yards in the those two games.
With the season now over, there was a possibility that Odunze would need to undergo offseason surgery to fully repair his injured foot. But, while speaking with reporters on Monday, Odunze stated that surgery would not be necessary. A positive outlook for this upcoming offseason.
Injury-aside, Rome Odunze isn’t pleased with the way his second season ended
Looking behind the injury, Odunze never seemed like the same player he was after making his way back onto the field and it had nothing to do with any limitations regarding his foot injury. Between the regular season and the two-game playoff run, Odunze had five drops on the season including a critical one on Sunday against the Rams.
In his final two games, Odunze was targeted 12 times with only four receptions. It was a frustrating way to wrap up his second season and Odunze is holding himself accountable for that and not using his injury as an excuse in any way.
“It was definitely disappointing,” Odunze explained. “I feel like I had a great offseason, great training camp, coming into the season and I feel like I started off hot and being the player for this team that I needed to be. With some of those things, it felt like a hiccup but, at the end of the day, we all play with different injuries that we play through. I gotta step through and proceed to be a catalyst to this team’s success throughout those things and I don’t feel like I did that well enough this season.
“At the end of the day, it’s about going back to the drawing board, kind of look at some things with my routine and maybe my preparation that I think should change and be the player I need to be for this team.”
Odunze is still a young play-maker for this offense and has the right growth mindset. Williams already noted that he plans to get together with his pass catchers this offseason to get back on the same page together as well.
That, paired with the positive injury outlook, along with having a second year ahead in the same offense, bodes well for Odunze’s opportunity to bounce back for his team next season. I’m looking forward to it because he still has all the skills needed to be a top player in this league in due time.
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