Curtis Enis has threatened to sit out the 1998 season.
But the issue has become not will Enis miss the season, but rather how much of it. After a contract impasse now entering its third week, the Bears believe Enis is already virtually useless to them for the Sept. 6 opener against Jacksonville and possibly beyond. They have cause for pessimism, beginning with Enis himself.
The problem is unlikely to be Enis holding out for the entire season. Sentiment is growing that Enis and his agent, Greg Feste, already have a signing date in mind. At that point they will agree to a deal with the Bears. Few believe Enis would hold out for the year because of reasons understandable even to rookie running backs and rookie agents.
Enis will never be the fifth overall pick in any future draft; he would not have been the fifth pick of this one had Ricky Williams not decided to return to Texas for his senior season. Enis’ value goes down, not up, as time passes. And because his first contract will be limited by a rookie salary pool whenever he signs it, his lost year of salary ultimately comes off the free agency years later in his career. In five or six years the salary for a top back may approach or exceed $10 million a year. Enis and his agent may be greedy; presumably they are not stupid.
But the real issue in Enis’ case is physical. By their own admission, recently signed veterans Randal Hill and Bam Morris need perhaps three weeks to get into NFL shape. Enis was not in NFL shape in the June mini-camp and proceeded to strain a hamstring in relatively light non-contact work. He has hamstring problems in his past and, looking at the current Bears sick list, will again.
“He went out and practiced (at mini-camp) for what, three days, then didn’t practice because of that tweaked hamstring,” said running backs coach Joe Brodsky. “That’s what’s going to get him. I know it is.
“Mentally we can bring the offense down to him. But physically this is not a walk in the park. Bam Morris has been in the league, he’s done it, and he’s tweaked his.”
A hamstring or other injury would flatten a learning curve that few of Enis’ first-round predecessors have managed to cheat on after a holdout. Hurt, Enis cannot play. Healthy, he may not, either, at least not well for a while.
Feste said that all Enis needs to do is show up and simply run through holes. Assuming his hamstring holds, though, the danger lies elsewhere. Bears backs are involved in pass protections, meaning that if Enis blows an assignment, it will be Erik Kramer, not Enis, who pays.
Offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh’s training camp program, designed partly for Enis’ benefit, has installed the offense in chunks rather than all at once.
“We’ve taken the approach of working on these five running plays and these five passing plays until they’re perfect before we add to it,” said left guard Todd Perry. “I think this has been a great approach.”
But it also means that Enis has missed the phase-in program. If he arrives soon, he would learn the old everything-at-once way. But if he waits another two weeks, it gets worse: he’d be trying to learn the offense while the Bears are preparing for a specific opponent.
Enis’ holdout threatens to put him in dubious company: first-round running backs whose holdouts cost them dearly as rookies. Few of the game’s current elite rushers were holdouts as rookies. Most signed by mid-July and were in camp.
The memory of Rashaan Salaam’s 17-day holdout in 1995 is painfully fresh for the Bears. Salaam set Bears rookie records with 296 carries and 1,074 yards, plus 10 touchdowns. But fumbles were the story of his season and can be traced to time lost holding out, time that would have been spent correcting tendencies under NFL conditions. Salaam injured a hamstring in 1996, broke a leg in 1997 and was released with an injury settlement Wednesday.
Emmitt Smith was a Pro Bowl running back in his second season for the Dallas Cowboys, but his 1990 rookie season was set back by a holdout that lasted until Sept. 4, five days before the Dallas opener.
Smith did not start the first game of the 1990 season and did not get his 1,000 yards, the only time in his career that he has missed that mark. His 3.9-yard average was the second-lowest of his career.
“Some day when he goes into the Hall of Fame, he will regret (the holdout),” said Brodsky, the running backs coach in Dallas when Smith arrived.
“When we were in Dallas, we didn’t have the financial wherewithal to bring in a quality football player, so whenever Emmitt got ready, he went right in. He played good. Not great, good. He made mistakes.”
So did Tim Biakabatuka, taken eighth overall in the 1996 draft. Biakabatuka, one of only three first-round running backs in the last four drafts to receive voidable years in their rookie contracts, held out until Aug. 16. His season ended with a knee injury in October, but he was far from dominant at that point, with a 3.2-yard rushing average and no touchdowns.
Tyrone Wheatley, a draft classmate of Salaam’s, did not sign with the New York Giants until Aug. 1 and never caught up his rookie season. The 1995 season was the poorest of a to-date mediocre career in yards, average and pass receptions.
Barry Sanders, as he has been all his career, was the rarest of exceptions. Sanders signed Sept. 8 and played Sept. 10. He finished the season in the Pro Bowl with 1,470 yards and 14 touchdowns. But he, of course, is Barry.
Enis and Feste are not guaranteeing that.
