Rome Odunze Has First Major Disagreement With Bears Since Being Drafted

Following the NFL Draft on April 25th, Chicago Bears fans, coaches, and media have had a renewed vigor. Now boasting new franchise QB Caleb Williams, and future star WR Rome Odunze, it promises a blissful marriage.

Since then, hope has remained high – if somewhat challenged. Williams has recovered from a questionable start to OTAs, and Odunze has returned from a hamstring injury that plagued him a few weeks ago. A new challenger emerges, however. HBO announced that their next season of “Hard Knocks” will follow the Bears, making them the next subjects of the NFL’s annual “Big Brother” style training camp docuseries.

Odunze, however, isn’t thrilled.

“I think for me, I’d definitely be more comfortable not having the ‘Hard Knocks’ in the building just because we’re all learning the new offense as rookies,” Odunze said to Bears Wire.

"Caleb has a lot on his plate already, so learning the offense and growing within the facility and setting a foundation for ourselves. So it would be something that, if it happened, we’d take it and we would go forward with it and do it the best that we could. But I think it might be a little bit of a distraction for what we’re trying to accomplish."

- Bears WR Rome Odunze

He isn’t alone. Most often seen as an ignominious bequeathment, players and teams are not always happy about the arrangement. Teams are only able to expressly say no under the following criteria: they don’t have a rookie head coach, they didn’t make the playoffs the two years prior, and they haven’t appeared on “Hard Knocks” in the last decade. The Bears, Broncos, and Saints were left vulnerable under these conditions. With a semi-controversial young QB leading a roster on the rise, Chicago was the easy choice.

The former Washington standout likely isn’t alone in his sentiments, they just happen to oppose public statements from team officials, team president Kevin Warren and GM Ryan Poles. This is straight from the team website: "The 2024 training camp will be big for us in preparation for achieving our season goals and we look forward to bringing the fans at home along for the journey," Poles said.

What will allay concerns from Odunze and others is a strong message from leadership. Head coach Matt Eberflus has been through the “Hard Knocks” rigmarole as the Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator in 2021 when they debuted the in-season version of the show.

“We know we had really good people in the building and our message was going to be, (this is) who we are and how we operate,” Eberflus said, according to The Athletic. “No one changes how they act, no one changes what they do. We just focus on our job, and they’re going to have special-interest stories that they do, which I think, some of them are really good. And we have a lot of them here in our building, so I’m excited to see that.”

What Odunze and any commiserates can’t help is what makes quality TV. The Bears have rather infamously never had a quarterback worth documenting extensively. His looking good assuages any potential bad pub. Odunze is a huge part of that. Even if there is some cynicism entering the process, make it work for you.

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