Jets coach Todd Bowles compared wide receiver Quincy Enunwa to basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman a few weeks ago.
Bowles was not saying he expected Enunwa to get a nose ring or hang out with Kim Jong-un. The comparison was about how Enunwa does the dirty work for the Jets like Rodman used to do for the Pistons and Bulls, among others.
Enunwa liked the comparison.
“Yeah, a guy that’s going to go out there, scrap, make plays for the team,” Enunwa said. “Sometimes you’re not going to be able to do all the pretty work, but I want to go down there and do the dirty work. I’m not always going to be able to make those plays, but I’m going to do my best.”
In the preseason opener against the Jaguars on Thursday night, Enunwa only played briefly, but he made an impression. He caught back-to-back passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick that set up the Jets’ first touchdown of the game. At the end of the first quarter, he caught passes of 26 and 43 yards on the same route, finding a hole in the Jacksonville defense between the linebackers and safeties.
Enunwa could be a huge piece of this Jets offense. They spent last year searching for a third option in the passing offense after Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker. Enunwa began to show promise at the end of last season, and he is building off that now.
“Quincy has done a great job,” Fitzpatrick said. “It has been very evident to me through the beginning of training camp that he’s going to be a big part of what we do and has really improved as a receiver. He’s so versatile, and we saw that last year with everything we asked him to do. He can really develop into a big-time weapon for us. Just with the coverage that they were playing, he was able to kind of slip behind the defenders. That’s the kind of stuff that we expect out of him now.”
Enunwa, a sixth-round pick in 2014, was a surprise last season. The coaches liked his size and versatility. He can play H-back and receiver. He can block as well as catch. Enunwa finished with 22 catches for 315 yards last year.
“I think it’s kind of an advancement of last year,” Enunwa said. “I had a little role last year, and I tried to do the best I could with the plays I had. This year I’ve really worked on making myself a complete player. I want to be able to do the blocking I was able to do last year but also receive a little bit better. I’m not perfect. I’m going to make mistakes, but I want to make less mistakes.”
Enunwa’s 2015 season was interrupted by a four-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy after an Aug. 2014 domestic violence allegation. When Enunwa returned from the suspension in late November, he looked like a different player. He made big catches against the Cowboys and the Patriots late in the year.
“I think the time off made me reflect and also just relax,” Enunwa said. “I was able to kind of see what I was doing wrong and just go in and make plays, not rush it. Obviously, I was still a little shaky here and there. This year I’m just trying to build off of what I was able to do last year.”
Teammates can see him taking another step this year.
“Quincy got more confidence as the year went on last year,” Fitzpatrick said. “And it is definitely showing this year with just the way he’s catching the ball, the way he’s running his routes, kind of the understanding that he has of the game. All that stuff has grown, and it was good to see him get a couple [Thursday].”