Rome Odunze’s fantasy outlook looks a bit bleak as he lands on a roster with a rookie quarterback and two stud wide receivers alongside him on the depth chart. Still, with a name like “Rome,” there’s certainly a collection of high-quality fantasy team names for you to choose from, even if his fantasy stock doesn’t pan out.
That said, I’ll give this a fair look and analysis. Find out whether Odunze is worth selecting in your draft below.
Rome Odunze’s Fantasy Profile for the 2024 NFL Season
While adding rookie receivers to my roster is a favorite fantasy football strategy of mine, I’m not so sure about Odunze.
This is a completely different Chicago Bears team than last season. In the 2024 NFL Draft, the Bears drafted Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick. Just eight picks later, they took Odunze.
The team added Keenan Allen, Gerald Everett, and D’Andre Swift and signed DJ Moore to a big-time extension. Below are the targets all of the notable players on the Bears earned last season:
- Moore:Â 136
- Allen:Â 150 (with Los Angeles Chargers)
- Cole Kmet: 90
- Everett: 70 (with Los Angeles Chargers)
- Swift: 49 (with Philadelphia Eagles)
That’s 495 targets. There are just 16 rookie quarterbacks in NFL history to finish with 495 or more pass attempts, and only six of those happened since 2019. Of those 16, the highest completion percentage was Justin Herbert’s 66.6% with 595 attempts in 2020. However, the average is just over 60% across those 16 signal callers.
This is all to say that Odunze faces an uphill climb to get a favorable target share. Everett will likely have fewer targets in a backup role now, but still, this is asking a lot of Williams as a rookie quarterback.
Right now, Odunze’s ADP is the WR44 and No. 101 overall.
Is Odunze a Good Fantasy Pick?
Odunze is a fantastic player. At Washington last season, 35.1% of his targets were 20+ yards downfield, accounting for 18 catches for 599 yards and six touchdowns on such targets. However, 24.2% of Moore’s targets were also 20+ yards downfield.
Williams did throw downfield at USC in 2023, with 16.8% of his targets sailing 20+ yards.
I think Odunze’s skill set is well worth the WR44 spot, but predicting where he’ll have a big game could be increasingly difficult. He has the makeup to have games where he has two catches for 100 yards and a score, but pinpointing when that will happen will be a trying task.
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Moore will be the No. 1 option in this offense, while Allen will be a reliable slot option.
There’s potential for Odunze to return punts, which could make him slightly more desirable in leagues where you earn points from special teams plays, but again, it’s difficult for me to argue he’s worth more than WR44 given the team he’s on and the caliber of players around him.
If you do take Odunze, expect to have him on the bench most of the time and potentially use him as a trade piece or as a cut candidate when you need to add someone through the waiver wire player.
