Bears NT Eddie Goldman returns, wants to face Bucs on Sunday

A smaller Eddie Goldman planned to have a big season.

The Bears nose tackle was listed at 320 pounds — down 20 from last year — and, through the Bears’ first two games, felt like it.

‘I was smaller, so I was moving around more fluidly, more swiftly,” he said Monday at Halas Hall. “That was a long time ago, man. I can’t really reflect too much on it.

“It was a point of getting to where I can run to the ball time after time after time — and then at the same time not be tired and keep going. “

Goldman is about to see if he can do it again.

He wants to play Sunday, six days after returning to Bears practice for the first time since he was carted off the field Week 2 with a high left ankle sprain.

While the most difficult part of his absence was keeping the weight off — “A lot of vegetables,” he said — game-shape could be a different story.

“Just getting back into the fold of things and contributing,” said Goldman, who had a half-sack in the season-opener. “As long as I can contribute to the team and bring what I can to the table, then that’ll be the most I can do — give what I can.”

A healthy Goldman might be the Bears’ best defensive player. Coach John Fox said Goldman, who is only 22, has gotten better with each game of his young career.

“He’s got great knock-back and great shed-ability and he just takes up a lot of space in there,” defensive line coach Jay Rodgers said last week. “And they can’t run in between those two guards.

“He’s growing into it. It takes a little while for a defensive lineman in the NFL to be a great player, and he’s grown into starting to become the kind of player, in the beginning of the year.”

The main challenge, Goldman said, is putting his ankle through football activities rather than just rehab work. He was on the field during the portion of practice open to the media Monday, though the Bears won’t give a specific injury report until Wednesday.

“You getting used to pushing off, pushing people, having people pushing you,” Goldman said. “Just to get back to that.”

There’s no simulating practice during injury rehab — “They find out there’s muscles they didn’t know about at that first practice,” Fox said — but Goldman has made it easier on himself by keeping his weight down.

“Eddie’s done a good job being a pro,” Fox said. “He’s developed that mindset, he’s in good shape that way. Now it’s just getting in football shape.”