{"id":456432,"date":"2025-12-18T22:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456432\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:18:12","slug":"bears-rome-odunze-luther-burden-iii-ruled-out-vs-packers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456432\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears’ Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III ruled out vs. Packers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears<\/a> will be without two of their top wide receivers when they host the Green Bay Packers<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Rome Odunze<\/a> (foot) and Luther Burden III<\/a> (ankle) were ruled out on the Bears’ final injury report Thursday after not participating in either of Chicago’s last two practices.<\/p>\n

It will be Odunze’s third straight game missed due to the recurring foot injury he has been dealing with since late October. He was ruled out ahead of the Bears’ first meeting with the Packers on Dec. 7 and was a late scratch last Sunday against the Cleveland Browns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coach Ben Johnson said “all options are on the table” when asked whether the team would sideline Odunze for an extended stretch.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to do what’s best for Rome first and foremost,” Johnson said. “I know he wants to be out there and helping. It’s hard to tell him no sometimes. He just wants to be out on the field competing and contributing and helping our team win. So there may be a case where we have to protect him from himself a little bit and just make sure we get him right and he’ll be able to help us down the road.”<\/p>\n

Burden was carted back to the locker room in the third quarter of Chicago’s 31-3 win over Cleveland with an ankle injury. He finished as the team’s leading receiver with six catches for 84 yards.<\/p>\n

DJ Moore<\/a> paved the way for the Bears passing attack with his two-touchdown performance against the Browns. His workload could increase even further with Odunze and Burden out in addition to reserve receivers like Devin Duvernay<\/a> and Jahdae Walker<\/a> getting a chance to play meaningful snaps.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been really pleased with that room,” Johnson said of the Bears receiver depth. “I think we’ve got some young guys in there that we were really impressed with throughout training camp that ended up on being on the practice squad. If called upon, I think they’ve done a great job soaking the offense in over the course of the season so far and being involved. Coach El has done a great job with them just keeping them engaged and walking through. They’re in a great spot and I feel that way about all the guys that are either on the practice squad or have been primarily special teams players to this point.”<\/p>\n

The Bears (10-4) lost the first meeting between these NFC North rivals two weeks ago in Green Bay but enter Saturday ahead of the Packers (9-4-1) atop the division standings.<\/p>\n

Running back D’Andre Swift<\/a> sustained a groin injury in practice this week which led to him being limited on Wednesday and Thursday. He has dealt with groin injuries throughout the season and missed Chicago’s Week 9 game at Cincinnati while recovering from the injury.<\/p>\n

Both Swift and tight end Cole Kmet<\/a> (ankle\/knee) are listed as questionable against the Packers, but Kmet said he will play Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Bears activated linebacker Tremaine Edmunds<\/a>‘ 21-day window to return to practice this week. He was listed as limited on Tuesday and Wednesday and was a full participant during Thursday’s practice. He is officially questionable.<\/p>\n

“If we can get Tremaine back, it’s a huge bonus,” Johnson said. “He was playing tremendous football before the injury.”<\/p>\n

Despite missing four games with a groin injury, Edmunds leads the Bears in tackles (89), is tied for second in passes defensed (nine) and is third in interceptions (four).<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears will be without two of their top wide receivers when they…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":456433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[208952,208951,960,531,5723,9001,5386,1818,50,1232,125562],"class_list":{"0":"post-456432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-208952","9":"tag-burden-iii-luther","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-espn","13":"tag-green-bay-packers","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-illinois","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-odunze-rome"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115742894082836960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}