Jets defensive back Dee Milliner didn’t practice Thursday after injuring his left hamstring during a pass coverage drill on Wednesday.
The rookie corner claims he will be healthy enough to play Sunday in Tennessee, but it’s the latest nagging setback in an admittedly up-and-down start to his NFL career.
“I felt it give a little bit. The trainers came to check it out, so they felt it was best to pull me out of practice,’’ said Milliner, who insisted being pulled from practice Wednesday and sitting out Thursday was purely precautionary. Asked if he would be able to play against the Titans, he said he expected to be available.
“Yeah. That’s why I’ve been in the training room, just trying to get back, do my part,’’ Milliner said. “I’ll just leave that up to the coaching staff to make that decision.’’
That second caveat is relevant, since Milliner got benched after a poor first quarter in the Week 2 loss in New England and played sparingly Sunday versus Buffalo. The ninth overall pick has had a rocky start — holding out of training camp, missing the first few Cortland practices with a sore Achilles tendon and now dealing with hamstring woes.
“I was coming off just having the Achilles not too long ago and then this. It can get aggravating. But I’m going to be OK. I’m just going to stay at it and keep working,’’ Milliner said. “I’ve had some ups and downs. … You’re going to have those. This year has been great. I’ll continue to get better each week and continue to do what we can do.’’
Veteran corner Antonio Cromartie said he spoke to Milliner, who also had shoulder surgery before arriving in camp, about the importance of getting into a consistent training regimen.
“We had a talk this morning. The biggest thing for him to understand is you’ve got to get in a routine and stick to [it] even when you’re not injured,’’ said Cromartie, who had Milliner train with him this offseason. “We feel like we’re racehorses so you want to make sure you take care of your body as much as possible.
“Stretching, hot tub, cold tub, get in there even if you have a small problem and take care of that. … The biggest thing is you’ve got to take care of your body, injured or not. If you have tightness anywhere, you always stretch. We’re the racehorses. We have to make sure our body is well taken care of.’’
And until Milliner can do that — getting, and staying, on the field — defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman said he won’t waste time talking or even thinking about him.
“Realistically, we’ll coach up the guys that are on the field. He’s got to get healthy. Until he gets healthy there’s not a whole lot to talk about,’’ Thurman said with a shrug. “[All these injuries] would set any person back. But at the same time, you can’t talk about it. Injuries happen.’’
For his part, coach Rex Ryan insisted the Jets aren’t displeased with Milliner.
“Just the opposite, the kid was coming [along],” Ryan said. “So we’ll see. Hopefully this isn’t that big of an issue, because he’s going [up].
“[Did] he have a poor performance against New England, was it [not] at the level we wanted him to play at? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t happy with him. He played well this week, and this kid is only going to do this.’’