There were quiet moments inside the Jets’ facility last season when veteran quarterback Josh McCown would see Quincy Enunwa and feel compelled to do whatever he could to boost his teammate’s morale.
Enunwa was robbed of the 2017 season after he landed awkwardly on the MetLife Stadium turf during a preseason scrimmage and was placed on injured reserve with a bulging disk in his neck.
Talk to any NFL player who has been injured, and he’ll tell you one of the most difficult things to deal with is not feeling a part of the team. Everyone else moves on with the season and you’re left behind to rehab by yourself.
Enunwa was dealing with that, as well as an injury much more nebulous than a straight-up knee ligament tear or broken bone. There was much more uncertainty to his return than with many other injuries. And that cannot help but mess with your psyche.
“I’d see him in the hot tub and we’d talk every now and then, and I’d try to make sure his head was up,” McCown told The Post. “When you’ve been in this thing a long time, these years go by, and the older you get, you realize how fast a year can go by. So I just tried to remind him that 2018 will be here before you know it.”
Well, 2018 is here and so is Enunwa, who caught a team-high six passes for 63 yards and a touchdown in the Jets’ 48-17 win over the Lions on Monday night.
On Sunday against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium, Enunwa will get to experience a home opener, and as emotionally charged as home openers are for all players, this one figures to have even more powerful meaning for Enunwa, who said he’ll have his family in attendance.
“I kind of skipped out of a lot of things with the team last year just to kind of get my mind off of it,” Enunwa said. “I went to a few games, but I tried to keep my mind off of football and just work on getting back. Because the more I would focus on football, the harder it was to rehab. I’ve never had a year where I just didn’t play, so that was the hardest part for me.”
Enunwa was drafted in the sixth round in 2014 and had his breakout season in 2016 with 58 catches, a 14.8-yard average and four touchdowns. That is what heightened the anticipation so much for the 2017 season Enunwa never got.
“He was coming into his own then,” Todd Bowles said. “Just having sat out for a year, I think it has helped him mentally and he understands what his body can do and he’s taking care of his body well, so hopefully that continues.”
When Bowles’ words were relayed to Enunwa, he completely concurred.
“Definitely, it was great for me mentally because it gave me a chance to sit back and reflect and realize how much I really appreciate the game,’’ he said. “I feel a lot more carefree now and am just able to play.”
In the short time rookie quarterback Sam Darnold has been a Jet, it’s already clear who his go-to receiver is. He targeted Enunwa 10 times in the Detroit game.
At 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, he’s a physical specimen at receiver who has a borderline tight-end body and creates matchup problems for opposing defenses.
“He’s very versatile, and he allows us to do a lot of things and put him in places to try and create certain things as well,” Bowles said.
“He’s a big receiver at 230 pounds, running a 4.4 [in the 40-yard dash], who’s tough to tackle. He’s a mismatch for a lot of people,” receiver Jermaine Kearse said.
“Man, it’s so cool to see how hard he has worked to get back,” McCown said. “He didn’t sulk, he didn’t complain, he just worked his tail off. He’s shown unbelievable resolve. It’s who he is. His character was tested, and he’s shown who he is. I love that he’s out there.”
So does Enunwa.
“When I was around the facility last year and I saw Josh, he would tell me, ‘It will be so great to have you playing again,’ ” Enunwa said. “That was always encouraging to hear the starting quarterback say stuff like that — especially since he never got a chance to play with me. Just him knowing what I was capable of was great.”
Source: Read Full Article