It is possible that Curtis Enis could yet be a Bears linebacker, something the Bears need more than a running back who looks like a linebacker, since Enis did play the position at Penn State. Enis made three tackles and was switched to running back.
Or Enis could be a tight end, something else the Bears are missing. Enis played that position in high school, admittedly a very small high school.
If Enis is able to grow 3 inches and shed 50 pounds, he might be a wide receiver, another Bears need.
As is, wide is not an inaccurate description of Enis.
“He has excellent hands,” said coach Dave Wannstedt, who notices the little things.
There is certainly a lot of Enis to be had, and there ought to be enough of Enis as the fifth choice in the draft for the Bears to find something they can actually use, because the Bears have four or five of him already, although in separate bodies.
Maybe Enis can long-snap.
“He was head and shoulders above the next player on the board,” said the Bears’ draft clerk, Mark Hatley.
I don’t know if above is the right direction. And there are other parts of Enis’ body that would seem to exceed the norm in a more lateral heading.
“My expectation for Curtis Enis is to play hard each and every down,” said Curtis Enis. “I run hard. I keep things short and simple. I move the chains.”
Not since Ironhead Heyward have the Bears had such a specimen, and the Bears did not have to spend the highest draft choice since Jim McMahon on the overfleshed Heyward.
“Curtis was a bunch better than the next player,” Hatley said, and who can argue with that?
Hatley would rather think of Enis as Jerome Bettis or Eddie George, big backs who can move quickly, big backs who break tackles and the occasional strong safety.
If Bettis is known as “the Bus,” Enis is at least “the Camper.”
Just how big is Enis? Pending official calibration, estimates range from 230 pounds to 260 pounds, at 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches, a substantial fixture whichever guess is used.
“He’s 250, 245,” Wannstedt said.
Maybe the Bears were just trying to get as much as they could for their pick. The Bears refused to take two for one, or even three for one and stayed with Enis.
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“He was the best player,” Hatley said. “Quite a bit better than anyone else.”
A bunch, a bit. The point is made. Enis is better. And he’d better be.
The Bears have not used a draft choice this high on a running back since Walter Payton, a fourth. Hatley promises that Enis “will make a difference next year.”
Maybe Hatley ought to tell Enis.
“I can use this year as an opportunity,” Enis said. “Sit back and learn a lot.”
The Bears were unbothered by Enis’ rather shabby departure from Penn State, with a year of eligibility remaining. Enis accepted a $407 pin-striped suit from an agent so he could attend an awards ceremony in December.
Enis lied about it, swearing he was not in the Harrisburg mall where and when the purchase was made. And he lied that his girlfriend had bought him the suit. And then he confessed, apologized and entered the draft.
Enis is from Union City, Ohio, a town that straddles the Indiana border. When Enis was in the fifth grade, the local high school–Mississinawa Valley–was in the midst of a 27-game losing streak.
Enis told the football coach not to get discouraged because one day Enis would grow up and make the school a winner, which he did, rushing for 426 yards in one game. By the time he was a senior, Enis was Mr. Football in Ohio.
And it could have been in Indiana too. He’s big enough.