Chicago Bears’ new wide receiver, Rome Odunze, just realized how poor the franchise’s wide receiver history is. He now wants to rewrite the record books.
Well, the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft is in the books. The Chicago Bears made a big splash, adding a great quarterback/wide receiver duo in Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze. They will now play in an offense that could be one of the most potent ones in the league.
General Manager Ryan Poles has done a lot of work to revamp the offense this offseason. The Bears have a reputation for being old school, having a “three yards and a cloud of dust” mentality. With Poles, these are not your grandfather’s Chicago Bears.
The two picks represent a sore history for the Chicago Bears. They are the only team in the league that hasn’t had a 4,000-yard passer. Poles hopes that changes with WIlliams.
As a result of not having many very good quarterbacks, the wide receivers have not been able to do very much. Their leading receiver is someone not known beyond Chicago. Johnny Morris has the all-time receiving yards record with 5,059. He has not played since 1968.
In comparison, the Green Bay Packers all-time leading receiver in yards is Donald Driver with 10,137 yards. Also, the Carolina Panthers’ leading receiver is Steve Smith. The Panthers have only been in existence since 1993. Then there is the San Francisco 49ers leader, Jerry Rice, with 19,247 yards.
Odunze learns how bad the Bears’ history is
During an appearance on the Parkins & Spiegel Show, Odunze was asked if he knew who the Bears’ all-time leading receiver is. He thought it was Brandon Marshall, who only played in Chicago for three seasons. To illustrate the bad history even more, he is 13th on the list with 3,534. Heck, running back Walter Payton is fourth on the list with 4,538.
Danny Parkins then told him it was Johnny Morris and how many yards. Odunze was shocked.
In the career?
Yes, Rome, in the entire career. Rome then made the goal to break that record and add many more yards.
Hey man, well, I’ll hope I’ll go break that record and add a few thousand to that. We’ll go get after it. I think we’ve got some offensive power to do some big things over here. Five thousand is the goal then – let’s get after it. No shame to that record, that’s an amazing thing to do. I’m just looking to go make my own mark.
The Chicago Bears also hope Odunze breaks that record. Poles wants to see this offense hum not only in 2024 but beyond. If Odunze and Williams click together, that record may be broken in a short period. That would also mean that Williams could finally get the Chicago Bears on the board and finally have that 4,000-yard passer.
We shall see what happens once the games begin for real. However, if the new-look Chicago Bears offense plays how Poles expects, there will be many franchise records broken. Hopefully, there will be many NFL records broken as well.
2024 NFL Draft: Chicago Bears take local prospect to give Caleb Williams help at No. 75
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