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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff WriterSep 13, 2024, 04:21 PM ET
- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears‘ injury-depleted wide receiver corps received a boost of optimism Friday, as Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze were designated as questionable for “Sunday Night Football” against the Houston Texans and coach Matt Eberflus said the team would treat both as game-time decisions.
Allen (heel) did not practice for a third straight day Friday while Odunze (knee) was a limited participant after two days with the DNP designation.
“We’ll take it all the way up to the game, potentially work them out before the game and then see where they are prior to the game,” Eberflus said. “That’s where those guys are.”
Allen, 32, injured his heel at the end of the preseason but played in the Bears’ season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans. He was on the field for 38 of Chicago’s 53 offensive snaps and caught 4 of 11 targets for 29 yards, finishing the game despite appearing to reinjure his heel in the third quarter, which led to a brief visit in the medical tent.
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The coach was asked whether Allen being a veteran and having already played through the injury gives him a better chance of being available in Houston.
“I believe that’s true,” Eberflus said. “I also believe that with an experienced player that he’s able to, and he’s played so many games, that you’re able to input him into the game plan a lot easier than, say, a rookie.”
Odunze, the No. 9 pick in this year’s draft, said he felt a “pop” in his knee when he was hit in the back of his left leg by Titans linebacker Harold Landry III as Landry tackled Bears running back Velus Jones Jr. in the fourth quarter. Odunze became tangled up and went to the ground awkwardly. He wore a sleeve on his right leg at practice this week and was seen with a wrap around his right knee Friday.
Having never sustained a knee injury before, Odunze noted increased soreness Sunday evening and Monday morning. That prompted him to undergo medical evaluation and an MRI, which revealed an MCL sprain.
Eberflus classified the rookie as day-to-day but said Odunze’s injury was “nothing serious” earlier in the week. Odunze said doctors told him the knee does not have any structural damage.
“It’s just like any injury in the fact that it’s a pain level, pain tolerance thing,” Odunze said. “I think when you’ve answered the question whether it’s structurally sound and whether or not you’re at risk of further injuring it, I think that’s the No. 1 question you need to answer. Then after that it’s, ‘Can you be yourself out there? Can you play through the pain?'”
Odunze, who was targeted four times in his NFL debut and caught one pass for 11 yards, said he felt “pretty solid” in his limited practice action Friday.
Eberflus said the Bears base their player usage on whether “the guy [is] 100 percent or not 100 percent,” which is something the team will have to determine over the next 48 hours as it gets a better sense of Allen’s and Odunze’s availability. With three healthy receivers — DJ Moore, DeAndre Carter and Tyler Scott — the Bears might look to promote Collin Johnson or Samori Toure as standard practice squad elevations.
With rookie quarterback Caleb Williams aiming to put together a better performance in his first NFL road game after throwing for 93 yards with zero touchdowns against the Titans, getting the Bears’ best players on the field at the same time is a focal point for offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
Moore, Allen and Odunze, Chicago’s top three receivers, were on the field together for 25 snaps against the Titans. That number dropped to nine when the Bears’ top three wideouts shared the field with running back D’Andre Swift and tight end Cole Kmet.
“We get in some of those games where we get in a little bit of an up-and-down rhythm throughout the course of a game, some of those personnel pairings that we’re looking to get to really didn’t play out the way we were hoping to as far as the course of the game,” Waldron said Thursday. “And it’s going to be tough each week, obviously, to have a perfect distribution of everyone’s reps right there, but it’s something we look at as a staff to how we can do a better job to help our guys, get in that rotation and get those guys out there together more often.”
