Bears rookie Rome Odunze gives advice for Fantasy Football drafts: ‘Put me in the flex right now’

LAKE FOREST, IL. — You may remember when then-potential Caleb Williams interrupted Brenden Rice’s podium finish at the NFL Arrange to ask him where people should recruit him in Fantasy.

If Williams asked new teammate Rome Odunze that question now, Odunze would have an answer about what he (and everyone else) should do this fall.

“You have to put me in flex right now, I’m not going to lie,” Odunze told CBS Sports at Bears minicamp on Wednesday.

After some practice, it might not be such a bad idea.

Naturally, all the Bears team talk has been about the development of Caleb Williams. From the bad (his pace and interceptions) to the good (sensational arm strength and playmaking ability), all eyes and minds are on the new hero quarterback of a franchise that has had everything but that.

But Odunze stood out on his own. The rookie logged reps exclusively with the starters, often as the third receiver lined up on the outside. He’s in sync with Williams on a good number of his targets, including two on Tuesday in 7-on-7 drills: a 20-yard dart in a two-receiver formation and another big gain on a Williams trademark scramble drill, where he threw the body to Odunze, who wisely ran hard in the same direction as Williams to make himself an available target.

Getting on the same page so quickly with Williams stood out.

“Maybe we already have this instinct thing,” Odunze said.

Odunze isn’t the only one to receive passes from Williams in minicamp. He’s sharing the receiving room with two unquestioned receiving stalwarts, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen. Moore picked up where he left off last year even with the quarterback change, contorting himself to make some tough catches and opening himself up for plenty of gains downfield, while Allen began to develop his time with Williams on short routes on Wednesday.

The chance to share the field with these two stallions did not go unnoticed by Odunze.

“It’s like football heaven to be in a room with all these guys and be able to learn from them day in and day out,” Odunze said.

The rookie compared his situation this year to the situation the last two years in Washington, calling all three receivers “ones.”

“For us at UW we were all WR1, honestly,” Odunze explained. “We all complement each other and that’s why we were very successful and went to the championship in the first three rounds.

“I think that’s exactly the situation. We don’t just have three guys, but we have a wide receiver corps as a whole that is capable of doing so many different things. It’s so versatile that we kind of complement each other.”

The incredible depth of this receiving corps is why Odunze, who said he played fantasy football the last two seasons for fun, has to call itself flexible. On any given week, one guy might leave and another the next.

And the receivers know it. Allen told the media on Tuesday that he and Moore have a race to see who can reach 1,000 yards first. Odunze wants to participate in the contest.

“I think I’m in, I think they know I’m in,” he said. “I think our entire wide receiver corps is in. You never know what’s going to happen. We’re all competitive in that sense, we want to put pressure on each other.”