Rome Odunze Camp Update — August 31: A Quiet Week Atop the Depth Chart
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Odunze's week is mostly a listing: a starting receiver on the post-cuts depth chart, and almost nothing else written about him. The starters sat the finale, so his preseason closed at one series, one catch, eighteen yards. The real Odunze item is Luther Burden returning to practice in individual drills only.
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Rome Odunze's week is mostly a listing. SI Bear Digest's post-cuts depth chart has him as a starting receiver next to Luther Burden III, per Jerry Markarian, and that is close to the only place his name appears in the window: the beat's practice reports from Wednesday and Thursday don't mention him, and with Caleb Williams and most starters sitting Saturday's finale, per Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times, there was no game to write him into. None of that is an injury note — no reporting says he missed anything; he simply wasn't written about in a week the coverage spent on cut day, Burden's return and the backups' finale.
What did move sits next to him. Burden returned to practice Wednesday but took individual drills only through Thursday's joint practice, per Courtney Cronin at ESPN and Kole Noble at A to Z Sports — listed as a starter while carrying no team reps since August eighth. The receiver room went to five: Scotty Miller released, per Adam Schefter of ESPN as relayed by A to Z Sports; Maurice Alexander cut, per Alan Rubenstein at Yardbarker; Kaden Davis cut, per Patrick Norton at CHGO Sports; Ray-Ray McCloud III to injured reserve, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk. Rookie Zavion Thomas made it after a five-catch, hundred-40-yard finale, per Larry Mayer at the team's website — production that came against Titans backups with the starters out.
Back in June we liked Odunze's number-one setup without pre-paying for it, and the question we set — whether the targets DJ Moore left behind actually pool on him — closed the preseason unasked: one series, one catch, 18 yards was the whole sample. Last week's watch line about his target share in the remaining starter snaps got its answer when there were none. The September target tree projects to be shared between the two of them, with Burden entering it having taken no competitive summer reps since August eighth. More when real games start asking the question.
_Data via nflverse._
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