Mel Kiper Jr. reveals what impresses him the most about Rome Odunze as NFL Draft prospect

The 2024 NFL draft is fast approaching, and ESPN’s draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. is keeping NFL fans up to date on the top prospects in this year’s draft. Recently, he unveiled his top ten draft prospects on the Draft First Podcast with Field Yates. And coming in at No. 5 is Washington Huskies wide receiver Rome Odunze.

Odunze, along with Huskies star quarterback Micheal Pennix Jr., helped lead one the most explosive offenses in college football this season. And because of the significant and consistent role he played in helping lead Washington to the College Football Playoff national championship game, Odunze finds himself as one of the top-10 prospects in this year’s draft.

“Rome Odunze is a guy I love. He’s a guy that fires me up about this process,” said Kiper. “Rome Odunze has been doing it for about two years; what he did last year [and] this year with Michael Pennix Jr. I talked about it all year, kept saying, ‘Okay, every game is he gonna be great?’ And he was.

“Every game was five catches or more. The only game, against Utah, he didn’t, he had three catches for 111 yards and a couple of touchdowns.”

More to love about Odunze

Odunze put together impressive back-to-back seasons at Washington with Pennix tossing him the ball. In 2022, he finished the year with 75 catches for 1145 yards, seven receiving touchdowns, and one rushing. In 2023, he upped the ante with 92 catches for 1640 yards, averaging 17.8 yards per reception with 13 receiving touchdowns and two rushing.

It’s not just Odunze’s statistical production that Kiper is enamored with. According to the NFL draft expert, the Washington wide receiver also has the measurements to match and a pretty impressive skill set.

“He’s 6-foot-3, 215 lbs.” Kiper continued. “You talk about contested grabs; when you got the corner [and] you got the receiver… the catch radius of Rome Odunze, phenomenal. The ability to track the ball, he does a phenomenal job in that area. He can run after the catch, silky smooth, deceptive in terms of speed where defensive backs take bad angles. But boy, was he special with Michael Pennix Jr.”

Currently, in his first 2024 NFL mock draft, Kiper has Odunze heading to the Chicago Bears with the No. 9 overall pick. But time will tell if the ESPN draft experts’ projection is correct or if he changes it between now and April 25, when the first round of the 2024 NFL draft is scheduled to take place.