Countdown to training camp: 27 [Dee Milliner] Days

Feature Image: Ron Antonelli, NY Post

The time from now until training camp can be filled with a mix of vacations and training regiments for players and personnel, but for hardcore NFL fans it’s more of a time filled with vodka and despair.

We’ll be counting down to the June 23rd, report-to-Cortland date, by featuring current players with roster numbers that correspond with the number of days left. For days without a corresponding player, we’ll be featuring other players and maybe some surprises.

27 Days = #27 Dee Milliner

Entering his sophomore campaign, 2013′s first-rounder still has a lot to prove, while entering a larger spotlight. Fair or not, Milliner will most likely be thrusted into a number one cornerback role, matching up with – for the most part – opposing teams’ number one wide receivers.

If there was an in-season Comeback Player of the Year award, Milliner may have been in voters’ consideration last season, even as rookie.

Milliner’s spinning head, in the early goings, resulted in coverage whiffs and mismatches. Most notably, in the Jets’ first game against the Patriots (pictured below), Milliner blew a coverage that left fellow rookie WR Aaron Dobson wide open for a TD.

Milliner is at the top of the four-man group of Jets defenders in both images.

Milliner would later be pulled from the game, one of multiple benchings that the rookie would experience in the early stages of the season.

However, he would bounce back towards the end of the season, accumulating three interceptions in the Jets’ final two games. Milliner’s improved play in December earned him NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month and AFC Defensive Player of the Week (Wk 17) honors.

What does the future hold?

Cornerback is a position of growth through experience, arguably only second to the quarterback position. With a dominant defensive line, Milliner is afforded a luxury of minimized coverage time needed. However, he will have to play much better in the early stages of the season, if the Jets want 2014 to be there year.

Look at the Jets’ 2014 schedule, and you’ll see why.

In just their first four games of the season, Gang Green’s cornerbacks will be charged with defending the likes of Jordy Nelson, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and Calvin Johnson. Add that to the fact that Milliner doesn’t have much to rely on behind himself on the depth chart, and things get scary.

Jets fans will hope for an immediate impact from rookie safety Calvin Pryor, but it’ll be Milliner’s development that may make all the difference for the secondary.

The pressure’s on from the first snap in training camp, and Milliner will have to respond to the best of his capabilities. Rex Ryan has already started the battle to push Milliner to his limits, after the corner had to sit out of a practice during OTAs with a hamstring injury.

“He has to understand that he has to be in extraordinary shape,” Ryan said. “His challenge is to be in world-class shape because we have to have you out there. He needs to be out there. He needs to get work because that’s how he’s going to get better.” – NY Post

In short, Milliner’s greatest test will not come against the top WRs in the league, it will be against himself. Milliner needs to provee just how much he has learned in a year with the team, and how focused – physically and mentally – he can stay, from training camp through the regular season, and hopefully more.