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This season is going to look unlike any other in recent history. But it’s not just the COVID-19 pandemic that has already made the NFL unrecognizable to a degree. For the Chicago Bears, they’ll have to hit the field without one of their best defensive lineman.
Chicago will be without nose tackle Eddie Goldman, who opted out of the 2020 season due to health and safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. And while the loss is brutal, the show must go on.
The challenge with replacing Goldman is that you can’t replace someone like Goldman, which is why his loss is so significant. While the Bears certainly have some players that could very well take the next step, it’s hard to replace the kind of veteran experience that someone like Goldman has developed to help make him such an integral part of this defense.
“There are some guys on our team that do some things that Eddie does just as well; they just haven’t done it in that position for as long,” defensive line coach Jay Rodgers said, via ChicagoBears.com. “Eddie’s been the anchor point in the middle for five years now. Through experience, you learn. Eddie didn’t just arrive in his first year and have all that ability. He learned how to play the game. We’ve got some guys who are getting more experience in those positions and are learning to play the nose position at a high level.”
Still, the Bears need to find Goldman’s replacement this season, and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to look at free agency where nose tackle Damon Harrison still resides. Chicago feels comfortable with the guys they have, and they’re about to get a bigger workload. Rodgers said that veterans Bilal Nichols, John Jenkins, Abdullah Anderson and Brent Urban will all see some reps at nose tackle during training camp.
“We’d like to have options,” Rodgers said. “What you’d like to have is the best two, three, four guys out there on the field that you could possibly put out there with the ability to substitute when you need to and not have any drop-off. So we’re going to continue to train everybody at every position.”
Whoever lines up at nose tackle likely won’t have the same impact that Goldman would’ve. But there’s a reason why the Bears have one of the best defensive lines in the league — and it’s not because of just one player.
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