NFL Rumors: Rome Odunze, Bears Seen as 'the Best Fit in the Draft' After 2024 Combine

Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze is seen as perhaps being the best fit for the Chicago Bears out of the consensus top three wideouts in this year's draft.

The Athletic's Dane Brugler dropped that note after attending last week's NFL Scouting Combine and hearing the latest buzz.

"For the Bears, fortune favors the bold. None of the top three receivers are falling to No. 9, and this is a relatively low price to pay for an impact pass catcher who will help win games from Day 1. Only GM Ryan Poles knows which receiver he would prefer in this scenario, but a popular theory to emerge from combine buzz was that a Bears-Odunze pairing might be the best fit in the draft."

Brugler dropped that tidbit in his latest mock draft, which had the Bears trading up from No. 9 to No. 5 with the Los Angeles Chargers to get Odunze.

As Brugler noted, it doesn't appear likely that Odunze, Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. or LSU's Malik Nabers will fall to the Bears at No. 9.

Of note, in the latest B/R NFL Scouting Department mock draft, Harrison went fourth to the Arizona Cardinals, Odunze landed sixth on the New York Giants and Nabers fell seventh to the Tennessee Titans.

Predictions overwhelmingly point toward the Bears staying put at No. 1 and taking rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. If that happens, then he could use another star wide receiver. Williams would already have one in D.J. Moore, but another potentially great pass-catcher like Odunze could get the signal-caller's career off to a great start.

The B/R NFL Scouting Department is a big fan of his work, ranking him ninth overall on its big board, writing:

"Odunze is a quarterback's best friend. He's a reliable route-runner with good size and an accuracy-erasing catch radius. Odunze can be a classic X receiver who moonlights as a slot receiver from time to time thanks to his awareness and ability to play in traffic."

We'll see soon enough what the Bears decide with the draft starting April 25. Ultimately, though, it's hard seeing him land in Chicago unless the Bears make a move up from No. 9.