Round 1
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
When a team holds a pair of top-10 draft picks, a hype train forms. And when that team spends those picks on a quarterback and a wide receiver, the hype train takes off. Then it’s on the rookies to keep up. Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze couldn’t manage that. Not that Williams and Odunze were abjectly bad in Year 1; they just failed to meet lofty expectations.
Let’s start, per usual, with the quarterback. Williams flashed the enticing skill set that made him one of the more ballyhooed prospects in recent memory, but consistency was a problem. While he set Bears rookie records for passing yards (3,541) and passing touchdowns (20) — and threw an NFL rookie-record 354 consecutive passes without an interception — he suffered bouts of inaccuracy and took a league-high 68 sacks. No, the shoddy offensive line didn’t help, but frankly, Williams often just held on to the ball too long. The stirring arm talent and athleticism are still there, though, and I suspect new head coach Ben Johnson will make the most of them.
Odunze finished his debut campaign with a solid receiver slash line (54/734/3), but he struggled to carve out a prominent role on a weekly basis. In fairness, he joined an offense with many veteran mouths to feed — most notably, target-hog wideouts DJ Moore and Keenan Allen — and suffered the knock-on effects of playing with a rookie quarterback. I also expect the new coaching regime to spur a sophomore surge for this big-bodied wideout.
