Chicago Bears final OTA practice takeaways: Is Rome Odunze a candidate at the punt returner position?

LAKE FOREST — Less than 20 Chicago Bears suited up for Wednesday’s practice in the 90 degree heat at Halas Hall on Wednesday.

Over the past three days, rookies and undrafted rookie free agents got the opportunity to continue working with the Bears staff before the team is set to return in mid-July for training camp.

Wednesday’s practice consisted of individual drills mixed with some periods for Caleb Williams and Austin Reed to throw passes to Rome Odunze and handful of other pass catchers.

Most of the substantive material came after the hour-long practice when Matt Eberflus, Shane Waldron, Williams and Odunze spoke to reporters.

Here are some of the top takeaways from those press conferences.

Matt Eberflus

One of the questions that Bears head coach Matt Eberflus and the rest of his staff must figure out is how they want to handle Williams when it comes to the preseason. There is a lot of newness surrounding the No. 1 overall pick, including — but not limited to — using a verbal cadence.

Eberflus said he is currently having discussions with his staff on how to best approach preseason.

“I think it’s something we have to look at and talk about and it’s what we’ll be doing here in the next couple days,” Ebeflus said. “I’m not going to forecast out exactly what it is right now because I haven’t made any decisions yet. I’m going to make sure that we visit with everybody, I’m in the process of the exit meetings with all the coaches right now and I’ve got about half of them done and I’ve got to finish that up. Then I’ll be able to think on that and do what’s best for the Bears.”

Another question Eberflus and the rest of the coaching staff must consider is how to balance a rookie quarterback getting exposure to live reps against an opposing team versus giving him too much that may put Williams in harm’s way.

“There’s definitely that,” Eberflus said. “You look at last year’s reps. C.J., Bryce, Richardson, they all got between 45 and 65 reps in the preseason. So you look at those things and you look at the past and we’ll be looking a little deeper than that and go back a few years. So you’re always looking at that and gathering the data. And like I said, we’ll always do what’s best for the Bears.”

It was interesting to hear Eberflus bring up the previous rookie quarterbacks and how many reps they played during the preseason, but as Eberflus mentioned, the team will do further research to find the best approach for their own signal caller.

Shane Waldron

Since Williams was drafted by the Bears on April 25, there has been a lot thrown in the rookie’s direction. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron reassured the media that a physical sink hasn’t actually been one of those things, but the team isn’t holding back when it comes to testing the quarterback’s knowledge.

“Yeah, no physical kitchen sinks but there have been a lot of plays,” Waldron said. “No, we’ve put a good amount in. Part of this in my mind and in our mind as an offensive staff is to really build some volume in the offense to see what all of our players can handle. We have a lot of pieces to that puzzle, so we want to see what different skill sets are going to be able to handle different parts of our offense and with that goal of building that towards training camp and into the regular season. So, we’ve dealt with a good amount of volume right now and we’ll continue to build on that until we get into a game plan.”

Waldron also went on to say that in the offseason program the quarterback room was able to continue “the whole way through based on their ability to grasp the information.”

Although there has been a lot of information given to Williams in the past six to eight weeks, Waldron has certain expectations that he would like to see out of his quarterback by the time he and the rest of his teammates return for training camp. One of those expectations is for him to continue taking ownership of the scheme and the overall operation of the offense.

“We talked a lot about what the offseason entails over this next four-week stretch that we have before we report back for rookies with training camp there,” Waldron said. “And so there is expectation there because that’s studying, that’s putting in the work even though it’s the downtime on that relentless pursuit of getting the edge and finding the edge. And for him finding that edge going into training camp being better than he was when he left here today without the benefit of practices will be so much focused on the studying, the watching tape, and then throwing and working on his fundamentals.”

Caleb Williams

The Bears may be off until training camp begins in mid July, but for Williams, there really isn’t too long of a break from football.

Williams will set his routine for the summer and stick to it. That routine will consist of rewriting his notebook to become more organized and finding that balance between work and rest.

But the rest from football won’t be long.

“Nah, it’s hard to forget about football for a couple days,” Williams said. “But to take the workload off, having days where this day you’re going to go over this for about an hour, hour and a half and then from there the rest of your day you feel OK because you did what you said you were going to do. You stuck to the plan and you’re like OK, I did this and I can go about my day, go through the process of that day and then the next day, maybe tomorrow is the actual day that you do get off or it’s a workout day, no mental work.

“It’s just having that plan, like I said, and sticking to it and feel confident and belief in your plan, in your schedule that you set and go with it. Because a lot of times the biggest thing for quarterbacks is confidence and believing in the plan, whether it’s game day, offseason or whatever the case may be.”

Williams also revealed that he plans to get together with his teammates. The Bears’ quarterback is currently in a group chat with his teammates and trying to figure out when and where they will get together to throw, workout and continue to bond.

“The plan is not also just be the offensive guys, but have defensive guys out there, us working on techniques and things like that together,” Williams said. “Bonding, enjoying each other and going from there.”

Rome Odunze

Along with Williams, Rome Odunze has a lot that he’s managing while he’s acclimating himself to the NFL game. Like his quarterback, he’s also trying to learn and understand Waldron’s offense. The rookie wide receiver out of Washington has a particular way he goes about learning.

“You know it’s unique because this will be my first time doing so at this level,” Odunze said. “But I have some habits that I like to do during the offseason. I love to get the playbooks, get the installs and I love to go out there and just run through the routs, the route tree and have my mom or my dad or somebody say the play call to me and I go line up or go out and run the rout. So I look to be on the field and physically do things but I’m a note taker as well, a film watcher, all the things that you need to do to ingrain it in your head so when I come back for training camp I’m ready to go.”

In addition to learning the routes and the offensive concepts, Odunze has also been taking reps as a punt returner. While he was at Washington, Odunze had three punt return attempts for 87 yards and one touchdown in four seasons.

Punt returning isn’t something Odunze has had a lot of opportunity to do in live games in college, but he definitely sees special teams as a way he can contribute to the team.

“Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely,” Odunze said. “You know, I had my fair share of punt returns in college. I practiced it every day. I didn’t get a ton of reps in actual game. Would’ve loved to get more of those, but I think it’s just another opportunity for me to shine and for me to add value to the team. I feel like I do it at a high level, so continue to grow with that, continue to find the technique of it, especially at this level with punters like Tory (Taylor). Man, he’s got some unique ones. So just learning those things. But yeah, you guys already know my favorite player’s Devin Hester. So if I can contribute in any facet in the return game, I’m all for it.”