Bears' Ryan Pace, Matt Nagy staunchly supportive of Eddie Goldman's 2020 opt-out

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The Bears take a lot of pride in their image as a family-oriented organization, something which was stressed again on Wednesday afternoon. GM Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy spoke for the first time since news broke that defensive tackle Eddie Goldman would be opting out of the 2020 season, and both spoke with conviction about supporting Goldman's decision fully. 

"You just recognize that this is personal for everyone and you’re just very respectful and supportive of that decision," Pace told reporters. "So both Matt and I talked to Eddie. We relayed that to Eddie. Eddie is an important part of our team and our family. And we’re going to welcome him back at the appropriate time, so I think you’re just really supportive of these individual choices when a player makes that ... But, yeah, we did reach out to Eddie and talked to him about this process and again, just very supportive and respectful with his decision.”

Not that it's the public's business, but no specific reason was given for Goldman's decision – teams aren't even permitted to speak on the matter any further than making an announcement that a player's opted-out. The Bears first heard from him via email, and soon after got in touch with the defensive tackle on the phone. 

"Having that discussion was very important to understand that for us, we completely support him," Nagy added. "I think that’s very important and everybody understanding, and he knew that right away. We told him we support him, we told him what we have – the education part, we told him what we have here so he knows – and that’s the decision that he decided to make. Like Ryan said on the front end: complete support.

"Everyone is so different with what their opinions are and we’re a family here. He’s a part of our family and this is what he chose to do and we just gotta make sure on our end now that we don’t flinch and we move forward. But he did it the right way and feel good about where we’re at and fully support him." 

Pace wouldn't say much about the team's schematic approach to replacing Goldman in 2020, only mentioning that he liked the depth at in the room already and line coach Jay Rodgers "gives us a lot of confidence with that position." Still, the GM didn't rule out a roster move – now, or in the future. 

"You know we are always looking at ways to improve our team and our roster," he said. "There is a lot of avenues for us to do that, it doesn't mean it has to be right now. But there will be opportunities ahead of us as well."

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