NFL

Cromartie growing into leader of Jets’ defense

Darrelle Revis is gone, but the Jets still may have the best cornerback in football — if you ask Antonio Cromartie.

The Jets’ new No. 1 cornerback believes if he can stay consistent he could be the best in the game, even better than you know who in Tampa Bay.

“I think so if I’m playing on a consistent basis and using my techniques and doing the things I need to do,” Cromartie told The Post last week.

Even though he believes he can be the best, Cromartie said that is not his goal heading into the 2013 season.

“Can I be? Yes. Do I care to be? No,” he said. “If we’re winning and I’m doing the things I need to do, then that’s what it’s really all about.”

Cromartie, 29, had his best season with the Jets last year when he stepped into the No. 1 cornerback role after Revis was injured. He made the Pro Bowl and showed a level of consistency that had been lacking in his first two seasons with the Jets and in his time with the Chargers.

During this offseason, Cromartie has emerged as an unlikely leader of the Jets. He has worked out with several of his teammates, including fellow cornerback Kyle Wilson and second-year wide receiver Stephen Hill. This week, Cromartie will play host to several teammates in California for workouts.

This would have been hard to imagine during Cromartie’s first two years with the Jets, when his attitude and play sometimes showed his immaturity. Former defensive coordinator Mike Pettine once said the coaches would ask each other before games whether the “good Cro or bad Cro” would show up that day.

“I see him taking a step as far as his leadership as well, bringing guys with him,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “He does work extremely hard. He’s one of the first guys in the building every day and one of the last to leave, so he is very dedicated. I’ve seen him on the practice field really working at his craft, trying to get better. Sometimes when you get a guy that has played extremely well, obviously a Pro Bowl level, sometimes it’s natural to kind of [think], ‘Hey I got this figured out.’ The great ones, the unusual ones, will try to take it [to] a level even higher, and I see that out of him.”

Cromartie’s role as a team leader is more important to him than where people think he ranksamong the game’s best.

“I couldn’t care less if someone said I’m the best corner in the NFL,” Cromartie said. “I really don’t care about that. I’m more focused on, ‘Am I doing the right things and are the young guys doing the right things they need to be doing?’ If we’re all playing as one, our whole secondary is the best. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”

Cromartie’s presence on the roster made it easier for the Jets to trade Revis. While Revis is generally recognized as the best in the game, there was not any noticeable dropoff when Cromartie stepped in last year.

“I’m not sure how many corners actually played better than him last year,” Ryan said. “But I see him taking another step. I don’t think there’s any doubt.”

Cromartie said no one on the Jets defense was satisfied with the way they played last year. Ryan has returned to running the defense and Cromartie said they are going to be much more aggressive than they have been in the last two years. For that to work, Cromartie will have to be the shutdown cornerback he was last year.

The veteran said he’s not setting any “lofty goals” for this year.

“It’s just to build on last year,” he said. “Be the leader that I know I can be for the guys on the back end and on this team. Just go out every single week and play on a consistent basis…. I think over the years in my career I haven’t been playing on a consistent basis until the past year and a half. I just want to be more consistent and set the bar high from when we step on the practice field to the meeting rooms to game time.”