For the past two years, the Chicago Bears' wide receiver corps has been deemed one of the best in the NFL. However, after a few offseason changes, the group has dropped outside of the top ten groups in the NFL, per Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report. Is he sleeping on the group, or has a failure to meet expectations had a say in their ranking?
The Chicago Bears' wide receiver corps is worse than last year
In 2024, they brought in a trio of D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, and Keenan Allen. Moore is coming off the best year of his career. Odunze was unproven, but as a rookie top ten pick, the expectations were sky high. Allen was on the downturn of his career, but was not considered washed up quite yet. Still, the group did not meet expectations.
Odunze was a slow starter, Moore did not mesh with Caleb Williams, and Allen ended up being a target hog who was not efficient.
The team reshuffled some things in 2025. They lost Allen and added Olamide Zaccheaus and Luther Burden to replace him. Zaccheaus was a proven depth piece, and the upside of Burden brought optimism for a second straight year.
However, Moore failed to produce once again, and after Odunze started hot, he cooled off. Entering 2026, they moved on from Moore and were not as reactive in replacing him as they were in the past two years.
To be fair, they did bring in two more names. They added Kaliff Raymond in free agency and Zavion Thomas. The issue is that while the Bears did bring in a couple of more names, they did not have the same name value as the additions of past years.
Raymond is familiar with Ben Johnson, so he is more valuable internally than he is from the outside perspective. Zavion Thomas was viewed as a late day-three pick and a gadget player. The Bears love what he brings to their offense, and Johnson feels he can use him well. However, a gadget player taken in round three is not viewed with the same respect as a rookie like Odunze or Burden.
Beyond that, Odunze has not quite lived up to expectations for two straight years and while Burden has high upside, his first half of the season was not productive. The Bears room has potential but they have to prove it to get the respect of years past.
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