Bears Without Eddie Goldman Again

It's three straight weeks without their nose tackle for the Bears, but coach Matt Nagy says he isn't frustrated with the situation.

USA Today

Nose tackle Eddie Goldman has been downgraded to out for Sunday's Bears game in Cleveland against the Browns.

Goldman was listed questionable for the game on Friday's injury report and now will miss his third straight game to start the season due to a knee injury suffered in practice before the game against the Los Angeles Rams.

Goldman did not travel with the team to Cleveland. The Bears had been holding out hope for his return to help stop the potent Cleveland Browns rushing attack. 

As they declared Goldman out, the Bears also promoted Margus Hunt from the practice squad. Hunt is a 6-foot-8, 295-pound defensive end with 8 1/2 sacks and 26 starts in a nine-year NFL career.

As each week has gone by now, the Bears haven't known whether they'll have Goldman available. They could have actually put him on injured reserve after the injury and had him back by next week if they had done it initially and he was healthy.

Coach Matt Nay was asked Friday about his frustration level with Goldman's situation.

"Zero. Zero frustration," Nagy said.

They will be able to lean on Akiem Hicks after he had been out of practice during the week due to illness and injury. 

Hicks had been sick and has missed practices with illness in the past, but Nagy said there is no concern about the situation or about a possible case of COVID-19 since this is closely watched.

Nagy characterized it as a case of sniffles or a cold.

"He had a little illness and I think there’s a lot of people right now that are kind of going through that thing, at least it seems like it," Nagy said. "That’s where he’s at and that’s where he was not for practice."

The Bears haven't really explained the nature of the knee injury they have Hicks listed with on the injury report.

The Bears also won't have linebacker Josh Woods available this week for special teams if they wanted to promote him from the practice squad. The Lions, who play the Bears next week, signed him away off of their practice squad and the Bears added for Bears linebacker Rashad Smith to replace him.

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