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Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffery isn’t taking part in the team’s offseason workouts right now as he’s opted to work out in Florida using a regimen he hopes will cut out the soft tissue injuries that plagued him all of last season.

The workouts are voluntary, so Jeffery is under no obligation to be there even though he has signed his franchise tender for the 2016 season. That doesn’t mean that Jeffery’s decision to work out on his own thrilled Bears General Manager Ryan Pace.

We’ve been in communication with him,” Pace said, via CBS Chicago. “He’s in Florida now, training down there. In a perfect world, we’d like him here with his teammates and building those relationships. But I also understand that it’s voluntary, and that’s the option he’s taken. … I wish he was here. It’s voluntary. It is what it is.”

While the Bears would like to have Jeffery in Chicago, his absence doesn’t appear to have squashed the team’s willingness to sign him to a long-term deal. Pace said Wednesday that “cordial and productive” talks on a new contract with Jeffery’s camp are ongoing