Rookie Ervins Shows Flash With Redskins

Many NFL training camps have a story like this one around this time of the summer. A story about fresh legs and breakaway speed, about a player who has looked so good that he looks like an immediate home-run threat and may have the potential to add another dimension to almost any offense.

The Washington Redskins have one of these stories -- Ricky Ervins, a former USC tailback who was the 76th player and eighth running back taken in this spring’s draft.

He has made big plays out of small ones, has shown the quickness to slip through wedge blocks for big gains and has almost everyone in the organization excited. The only question will be how to use him, and, with the first preseason game still several days away, he could be a backup running back and third-down receiver out of the backfield as well as a punt and kickoff returner. The Redskins hope he could be their Dave Meggett this season and in time their Emmitt Smith.

Their minds could change over the next month, but it has been so long since they had someone with his speed and ability to change directions -- Joe Washington was their best -- that they want to find as many ways as possible to put the ball into his hands even during his rookie season.

“He’s making big plays out of small things, which is what you’d like for guys to do,” Coach Joe Gibbs said. “He hasn’t missed a snap. He’s powerfully built. And he comes from a good background. He looks pretty good as a receiver. He can catch the ball. He’s an I-formation tailback, but if he gets polished up a little bit, he has a chance. He has the speed to come out of the backfield and get away from people. And he’s definitely tough enough to be a blocker. He’s powerfully built and will step up in there and take people on.”

Where does he fit? The Redskins have three proven backs -- Earnest Byner, Gerald Riggs and John Settle -- and highly regarded second-year man Brian Mitchell, who has been penciled in to be the third-down back and return man.

Gibbs said he doesn’t know what all the roles will be and says preseason performances likely will decide everything. But he points to Byner, his best all-around back, and says of Ervins: “He’s closer to Earnest than anybody we’ve got. He can do almost everything. We have to keep working with him and find what’s best for him.

“I think he’s going to be able to run back kickoffs for us. I think he could be a third-down back, catching those things like he has and making big plays. He can run from the line of scrimmage, we know that. We’ll just see how far he comes. ... “

Such success stories aren’t supposed to ride into town in the third round, and the Redskins didn’t know exactly what they were getting in this 5-foot-7, 200-pound package. Ervin’s senior season was virtually wiped out (393 yards on 90 carries) by an ankle injury.

But he has 4.51 speed and when healthy he made plays comparable to those of almost any of the great USC tailbacks. In his junior season he led the Pac-10 in rushing with 1,395 yards -- the most at USC since Marcus Allen had 2,427 in his Heisman Trophy season of 1981. Ervins also caught 39 passes, breaking Allen’s school record of 34. He finished that junior season with 126 rushing yards and was Rose Bowl MVP.

When last season began, Ervins was on almost every Heisman checklist, but that ankle injury in the fifth game ended those dreams.

“Someone rolled over on it,” he said. “I went 10 or 11 more plays and it was too bad. I tried to come back two weeks later. I could run straight, but was unable to cut. I came down on it and it popped. It was two or three weeks before I could play again ... at the end of the Oregon State game. We were up 56-0, but had UCLA the next week, and the coaches wanted to see what I could do. I went in and the second play a guy hit me dead on the inside of my ankle with his headgear. ... “

“It cost me some money,” lowering his standing in the draft, “but everything happens for a reason. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Still, he has looked completely comfortable in his first pro camp.

“I think I’m doing okay,” he said. “There’s a lot to be learned, but it’s coming along. Everything on the field moves at a faster pace, but the real adjustment is mental. They put so many things in there to learn that you have to study your playbook, and when you come out here you’ve got to recognize things. ... “

His story is unusual for another reason. He lived in Fort Wayne, Ind., until moving to Pasadena at age 11. He stayed there until he was 14 and moved in with a neighbor because members of his family “were into drugs. It was a very negative situation and I had to get away from it,” he said.”