Rome Odunze Spent Months Fixing A Weakness He Never Expected

Loads of success at Washington gave Rome Odunze the confidence that he could play at the NFL level. That and his obvious talent enabled him to go 9th overall in the draft to the Chicago Bears. All things considered, he had a decent first year. Odunze topped 700 receiving yards despite a rookie quarterback and an offensive system that the rest of the NFL repeatedly laughed at. Still, most people saw a young player trying to acclimate to a new level of competition. No doubt he learned some important lessons.

That is indeed true. Odunze spoke about one that stood out above the rest. It was the realization that defensive backs in the NFL are considerably stronger than he anticipated. For all his knowledge on running routes and other intricacies of his position, he quickly realized he lacked pure upper-body power.

“There’s a lot of nitpicking and grabbing in this league that isn’t always shown. I feel like I needed to build upper-body mass to be able to combat some of those things.”

When looking at him in OTAs and minicamps, it wasn't hard to see that Odunze has bulked up. D.J. Moore admitted his young teammate already looks better.

Rome Odunze keeps showing an important level of dedication.

Successful NFL players recognize that reaching peak level isn't about fixing every weakness in your game in one offseason. That is impossible. The smart approach is to identify one issue and use a full offseason to correct it. Then you focus on another in the following offseason. You should be a far more well-rounded football player within a couple of years. Michael Jordan took this approach. Walter Payton did the same. Rome Odunze has a long way to go before entering that conversation, but it's clear his maturity and intelligence are guiding him down the right path. Even better is that he'll have Ben Johnson calling plays for him now. The head coach is a master tactician who knows how to find space for his receivers. If Odunze does his part, the numbers should take off.