Antonio Cromartie’s breathing has returned to normal, and to demonstrate yesterday he ran his mouth.
The Jets cornerback returned to practice for the first time since suffering bruised ribs and a bruised lung, and expects to play Sunday against the Ravens. He likely will cover rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, who had five catches for 152 yards and three touchdowns last week against the Rams in his first start.
Impressive? Not to Cromartie.
“He had one big game,” Cromartie said dismissively. “That’s it. He has five catches for his whole career.”
Big talk from Cromartie, who did not play well against the Raiders on Sunday. Before injuring his ribs and lung, he had four penalties and botched a kickoff return that resulted in the Raiders recovering the ball at the Jets’ 13.
Coach Rex Ryan did not sound too impressed with Smith, a second-round pick from Maryland, either. In a conference call with Baltimore reporters on Wednesday, Ryan sounded like he thought Smith’s big day was more a product of poor defense from the Rams.
“He’s a fast guy, and all that kind of stuff, but I don’t think he’ll have equal success this week,” Ryan said. “If he does, then I’m just going to stay in Baltimore.”
Ryan was asked if he felt the Jets needed Cromartie back from the injury to cover Smith.
“If we want to shut them down, we can always put [Darrelle] Revis on [him],” Ryan said. “We’ll do what’s in our best interest. I think, the guy that I’d be more concerned with would be [Anquan] Boldin. He’s the proven commodity.”
Cromartie practiced fully yesterday after sitting out Wednesday. He injured his ribs and lung on a third-down tackle of Darrius Heyward-Bey. Cromartie said he made a late adjustment because he was worried about leading with his head and that left him in a bad position.
“I tried to change the way I hit him because I didn’t want to get a fine,” he said. “At the last second, I put my shoulder in too much and went from there.”
Cromartie said he had so much trouble breathing Sunday night he felt like a “fish out of water.” But he improved enough to do some conditioning Wednesday and return to the field yesterday. He will wear a light vest to protect his torso in the game.
Ryan said Cromartie had three interceptions in practice, so he feels confident Cromartie is fine.
The Jets signed Cromartie to a four-year, $32 million deal in the summer. So far he has had an up-and-down season. He got beat for two touchdowns in Week 1 against the Cowboys, then intercepted two passes against the Jaguars in Week 2. He followed that up with his four-penalty performance in Oakland.
“We need him to be more consistent,” defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “We don’t need the great game up here and then all of a sudden it’s a clunker the next week. We need to get [Cromartie] to the point where we can be a little more middle of the road with him where he’s just solid. Learn from [Revis], I think [Revis] can bounce back from a bad play. I think [Cromartie] sometimes because he’s so competitive and he wants to please, that it’s one of those things where he feels he’s letting everyone down and it snowballs on him.”
Cromartie certainly seemed to have put last week’s poor performance behind him while speaking to reporters. He was asked if he thought he would cover Smith or Boldin this week, and responded with more tough talk.
“I don’t care who I play,” he said. “My job is to shut down that receiver. Whoever I face is going to have a hard day.”