ESPN prognosticator projects Bears' newest offensive weapons will reach historic numbers during their first year

The Chicago Bears have some mighty high expectations going into the 2024 season thanks in part to the selection of their newest play-makers during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

With the start of the 2024 NFL season still months away, national writers and experts are beginning to predict what could happen this upcoming season, including projecting stat lines for various players across the league.

A lot of the talk has been surrounding the Bears' new franchise quarterback in Caleb Williams but the team's second draft pick, wide receiver Rome Odunze, is starting to some more of the national attention as well.

On Tuesday, ESPN's senior writer Mike Clay released the next wave of his 2024 season projections and this time focused on the incoming rookie class. As for the Bears' two top rookies, Clay projects a massive season on the way for both players.

For starters, Clay projects that Williams will lead all rookie quarterbacks with 3,532 passing yards and 23 passing touchdowns while making 15 starts. That passing yard number would shatter the Bears' rookie passing yard record that was set in 2017 when Mitch Trubisky threw for 2,193 yards in his rookie season and the rookie passing touchdown record set by Charlie O'Rourke with 11 touchdowns in 1942.

As for Odunze, Clay's projections has the ninth overall pick totaling 803 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns in 2024. Compared to the other rookies in Clay's projections, that would be the fourth-most receiving yards and tied for the most receiving touchdowns. When looking at the team's rookie receiving yards record, that number would be the second occurrence of a rookie reaching 800+ yards in Chicago since the merger, and the fourth-most yards by a rookie in Bears franchise history. 

Odunze's number is the most intriguing when comparing those projections to the other wide receivers drafted in the Top-10 selections since 2011. Clay included this fantastic table below detailing what those numbers have looked like in recent history.