LAKE FOREST — Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze are not limiting themselves when it comes to the expectations they have for their rookie season.
If anything, the two first-round draft picks are setting a new standard for how things should be for the Chicago Bears organization. Williams isn’t tempering what can be accomplished for the 2024 season just because he is a rookie.
“What’s the reason to duck? It’s here,” Williams said as the pair of rookies arrived at Halas Hall on Friday. “There’s no reason to duck. I’m here. Rome’s here. Keenan Allen, the top-five defense that we had last year, special teams, all the new roles – whatever. We’re here. I’m excited. I know everybody’s excited. The Bears fans are excited from what I’ve heard and seen, and there’s no reason to duck. Attack it head first and go get it.”
Odunze sees things in a similar way to his quarterback. He has an ideal vision of what a successful rookie season looks like to him.
“I think for me, making the playoffs 100 percent,” Odunze told CHGO Sports. “You know team wise I think couldn’t settle for anything less than that for sure, and then on an individual level, I want to go get the rookie of the year.”
The Bears haven’t been to the playoffs since 2020, and the last time an offensive player won the Rookie of the Year award was running back Anthony Thomas in 2001.
So, it’s been a while since those two accomplishments have been reached, but that is the bar that is being placed for this new era of Chicago Bears football.
Something else that hasn’t happened nearly enough with the Bears’ organization over the last two decades is beating the Green Bay Packers. Since the year 2000, the Bears have played 49 games against their NFC North rival and won just 12 of them, with Chicago’s last victory occurring in 2018.
Aaron Rodgers accounted for a lot of those victories, finishing his Packers career with a 24-5 record against the Bears. During the 2021 season, Rodgers scored a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter in an eventual 24-14 Packers victory over the Bears at Soldier Field. After the touchdown, Rodgers yelled out to the crowd, “I own you.”
Bears fans’ hate for Rodgers has arguably never been stronger than after that moment. Rodgers was the villain the Bears couldn’t defeat. Williams models some of his game after Rodgers and would welcome being seen in a similar light to Packers fans now that he is a part of this historic rivalry.
“I wouldn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind,” Williams told CHGO Sports at the NFL Draft. “I got booed today on stage for the first time and I haven’t taken a snap yet. It was pretty sick. I was kind of smiling while they were doing it. It was pretty cool.”
Williams also said for him to be seen in a similar position that Rodgers was during the rivalry he will need to do his job and play within the system, but the rookie quarterback also made it clear it would take a team effort to first win a lot of games at Lambeau Field.
And winning a lot of games is exactly what Williams envisions for himself in his NFL career. He wants to leave a legacy that will immortalize him with the all-time greats to ever wear a Bears jersey.
“I want to retire my last jersey,” Williams told CHGO Sports. “I’ve retired all of my jerseys from Little League, Bowie Bulldogs to high school to college, and hopefully I can do the same at his place. I’m really excited about the opportunity, and I want to win.”
