Jets’ Enunwa looking good on comeback trail from neck injury
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. » Quincy Enunwa was coming off a breakout season and looking to establish himself last summer as a bigtime playmaker for the New York Jets.
In one scary moment, that came to an abrupt halt.
The wide receiver was running a route when he dropped a pass during 7-on-7 drills. He took a step and fell to the turf face-first despite not having been touched.
He didn’t move for a few moments. His neck wouldn’t let him.
Fear set in, if only briefly, that Enunwa’s football career could be in jeopardy.
“At the beginning,” he recalled after a recent training camp practice, “definitely.”
Enunwa had a bulging disk in his neck, the culmination of problems he had been dealing with for most of the last several months. He had surgery a few weeks later and was reassured he would be able to play again. But first there would be several months of grueling rehab.
“I knew physically, there was no way that I would not be back on the field,” Enunwa said. “I knew I would hit every timetable and do everything I needed to do. I have confidence in myself as a physical guy, so I knew I was going to do the work and get back as soon as possible.”
Enunwa’s comeback appears nearly complete.
After sitting out offseason workouts and participating on a limited basis in minicamp, the
former Nebraska star has been practicing every day during training camp.
“It feels really good, yeah,” he said. “I mean, there are really no issues. I’m having fun, flying around. I can’t complain.”
Enunwa is still wearing a red, no-contact pinnie during padded practices, but hopes to shed that soon.
“I’d say it’s protocol,” he said. “I’m just going on their kind of timeline, doing what I need to do, but I’m having fun, though.”
Coach Todd Bowles wouldn’t declare Enunwa as being at “full speed” just yet.
“He’s doing everything, but it’s just precautionary,” Bowles said. “We’ll find a time and place and see if we get it right.”
Enunwa was a sixthround draft pick of the Jets in 2014 and saw limited action in his first two seasons. In 2016, he emerged as a vital part of the offense by working in a hybrid wide receiver/tight end/H-back role and setting career highs with 58 catches for 857 yards and four touchdowns.
Even more was expected going into last season — until the injury short-circuited those plans.
The doctors took a cautious approach with Enunwa’s rehab, not wanting to rush him back. But as the Jets trudged through a 5-11 season, Enunwa wished he could help.
“Physically, I was able to, but they told me not to,” he said. “So, it was kind of just sitting around and doing bike stuff, so those were the times when I was really anxious to get back out there to run and catch passes.”