{"id":276339,"date":"2025-11-07T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276339\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:13:08","slug":"rome-odunze-says-dads-shots-at-bears-dont-speak-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276339\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome Odunze says dad’s shots at Bears don’t speak for me"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Courtney CroninNov 6, 2025, 08:23 PM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever and GameNight on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.<\/p>\n

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears<\/a> wide receiver Rome Odunze<\/a> said Thursday that his father’s posts on social media are his prerogative, but that they don’t speak for the former first-round pick.<\/p>\n

Odunze is coming off his NFL first game without a catch despite the Bears scoring 47 points in a last-second win over the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> on Sunday. He was targeted three times in the game.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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Though the ninth pick in the 2024 draft offered an honest assessment of his play against the Bengals — noting a pass in the end zone that hit his hands was one he “could definitely make” but struggled to haul in once the ball was tipped — his father took to social media this week to express criticism of the Bears’ offense.<\/p>\n

After the win, James Odunze reposted a message on social media that asked whether the Bears would “trade Rome Odunze to a team that will actually throw to him” and another post that declared the receiver “should be seeing at least 10 targets per game.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t make a big deal out of it,” Rome Odunze said. “Obviously, he has his opinions, and I have mine. And he feels like he needs to voice those things on social media. That’s his prerogative. But he speaks for himself. I speak for myself.”<\/p>\n

Odunze leads the Bears in targets (59), receiving yards (473), receiving touchdowns (5) and is tied with fellow receiver Olamide Zaccheaus<\/a> with 31 receptions. Odunze is averaging over seven targets per game and dispelled any notion that he is frustrated with his role in Chicago.<\/p>\n

“Oh, man. I’m happy,” Rome Odunze said. “I’m just trying to do my job within this organization as a leader, as a person, as an individual and then as a football player. So, trying to excel at a Hall of Fame level in those aspects. That’s all I’m focused on.”<\/p>\n

The receiver, who returned to practice Thursday after being sidelined because of heel and ankle injuries, said he isn’t bothered by having to answer inquiries about his father’s social media posts and said his father’s intentions are good-natured.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty good at answering questions,” Odunze said. “So, I don’t mind it. Like I say, he has his opinions, and at the end of the day, he’s a Rome fan. He’s in full support of Rome Odunze. So, that’s first and foremost for him. But I love my pops.”<\/p>\n

Though his production in the pass game was missing in Cincinnati, the Bears’ social media team tweeted a 2-minute, 16-second compilation of the contributions Odunze made as a blocker in the win. It’s a role Odunze said he has emphasized since entering the NFL and one that players must “excel at to be a great receiver in this league.”<\/p>\n

“That was cool. I appreciate them doing that,” he said. “Obviously, it’s an unspoken rule … er … underappreciated aspect of wide receiver play that I feel like I excelled at in that game. Just looking to build on that.”<\/p>\n

The Bears, who at 5-3 are in the mix in the NFC North race, play the New York Giants<\/a> at Soldier Field on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtney CroninNov 6, 2025, 08:23 PM ET CloseCourtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-276339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}