Give Dee Milliner credit for this: He realizes his roster spot with the Jets is in jeopardy and is willing to fight for it.
Though the former top-10 pick gave up a long touchdown pass on Tuesday, Milliner has been impressive enough so far in training camp that fellow cornerback Antonio Cromartie is now praising him instead of mocking him.
Cromartie, you’ll recall, had embarrassed Milliner in front of a throng of TV cameras last spring by asking him how it felt to be “on the roster bubble” simply trying “to make the team.”
Cromartie, like many of the Jets coaches and players, has changed his tune about Milliner and his surgically repaired Achilles tendon after the first five days of camp.
“I’ve seen a lot,” Cromartie said when asked what he’s seen from the Alabama product so far. “He’s making plays on the ball. He gave up one today, but that was just technique.
“He has confidence in himself and the confidence in his Achilles [tendon] to play, and that’s all you can look for. He’s making the plays he needs to make.”
Milliner hasn’t had much choice but to give maximum effort, because it was clear from soon after coach Todd Bowles and general manager Mike Maccagnan took over last winter the new regime didn’t think much of him.
Not only did the Jets bring back Cromartie and Darrelle Revis, instantly forcing Milliner to a backup role, but Maccagnan also added ex-Browns corner Buster Skrine to go along with Darrin Walls, Marcus Williams and second-year pro Dexter McDougle.
Whatever protection Milliner might have had as the first pick of Maccagnan’s predecessor, John Idzik, went out the window when Idzik was fired at the end of last season — a season in which Milliner played in just two games before tearing his Achilles.
Milliner also was behind because the injury and his recovery from it prevented him from getting on the field in offseason workouts and minicamp. It was a familiar predicament for a player who had endured five surgeries before he even entered the NFL.
Injuries, in fact, are pretty much the last thing Milliner wants to talk about.
“I’m ready to put that behind me,” Milliner, who declined interview requests on Tuesday, told reporters last weekend. “No injuries [so far], so I’m trying to keep it that way. I just do my maintenance in the training room so I can stay out of the training room.”
But if Milliner is worried about injuries on the field, he hasn’t shown it. He looks aggressive in coverage, though that can sometimes result in big plays like the bomb he allowed to Salim Hakeem on a pretty throw from Ryan Fitzpatrick in Tuesday’s practice.
Milliner, though, has seemingly made more positive plays than negative ones so far in camp, and the Jets have noticed.
“To see him out there healthy and not blowing any mental assignments was a good thing,” Bowles said of Milliner last weekend. “Hopefully, he continues that.”
Asked if Milliner looks a step slower as a way to protect his body or from soreness left over from the surgery, Bowles shook his head.
“I didn’t seem him look gingerly at all,” he said.
Milliner also has made a point of staying close to Cromartie and Revis on the field and in the locker room so the third-year pro can pick the brains of the two Pro Bowl veterans.
If Milliner is indeed on the roster bubble, he insists he isn’t going to worry about it. Just like Cromartie’s verbal dig last spring, the talk of him possibly hitting the unemployment line so far is going in one ear and out the other.
“I’m just happy to be back out on the field,” Milliner said. “Hopefully, they’ll just tell me to get out there, and I’ll get out there.”