Rookie cornerback Dee Milliner had some ups and downs in his Jets debut.
Milliner, who missed all spring practices while recovering from shoulder surgery, looked like he still was shaking off the rust a bit in Friday night’s preseason-opening 26-17 loss to the Lions.
Detroit went after Milliner on its second drive, as Matthew Stafford threw to the end zone from the Jets’ 29 toward Patrick Edwards, but Milliner had good coverage and batted the ball away.
On the down side, Milliner missed a tackle and got beat on one long pass from the Lions’ second unit. Jets coach Rex Ryan also said Milliner made a mental error on one coverage.
The No. 9 overall pick out of Alabama was happy with his performance overall.
“It was definitely exciting,” Milliner said. “It was a good feeling. I felt I did good. There is always room for improvement, though. We came out and had a good game. Unfortunately, we had a loss but we are going to go back and watch film and try to get better.”
Milliner said he knows he has things to improve.
“Just need to go out there with a plan,” he said. “Just need to get in a rhythm of playing. It was my first NFL game so I needed to get in a rhythm and just get out there instead of going through the motions. I needed to adapt to the speed of the game.”
* The Jets lost another running back Friday night when John Griffin suffered a broken leg. They have been without Chris Ivory and Mike Goodson for all of training camp and Joe McKnight for some of it. That has left them extremely thin at the position.
The Jets are in the market to add another running back. Former Rutgers star Joe Martinek had a tryout yesterday in Cortland, according to his agent, Donal Henderson. Martinek spent time on the Giants practice squad last year.
* Rookie wide receiver Ryan Spadola had the most snaps of any Jet on offense Friday night with 37. Safeties Jaiquawn Jarrett and Josh Bush each had 50 snaps, the most of anyone on defense.