NY Jets: Milliner Playing If As Healthy As Last Week

Dee Milliner was not exactly a shut down cornerback last week, unless you count shutting down hopes of a Jets win.  To the casual observer Milliner looked, well, sort of inept.  Most likely that was because his high ankle sprain hasn't yet fully healed, and his compromised health did not allow him to run and cut as well as he would or should have with a clean bill of health.  The alternative of course is that Milliner actually is inept, which is a possibility, but it does not seem probable to me that he would be THAT inept if healthy.  Milliner himself blamed the ankle for his inability to move well, and ended up taking himself out of the game after the long 80 yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson.

When asked about Milliner's health for Monday's game and whether Milliner would be playing, Jets head coach Rex Ryan had this interesting response:

Well, yeah, if he is as good as he was last week, then, yeah, absolutely [he'll play]. We will determine that later in the week. Unless we feel great about it, he feels great and everything else, then we're not going to put him in there [for] 100 percent of the snaps.

This is an interesting and somewhat unsettling take on Milliner from Ryan.  Most fans watching the game last week came away convinced the Jets and Milliner would both have been better off, both in the short run of the game at hand and in the long run of the rest of the season, if Milliner had just rested the ankle another week or two.  Apparently Rex does not concur.  Apparently Rex liked what he saw last week enough to call for an encore this week in the event Milliner's ankle is in the same shape as last week.  I think I speak for most Jets fans in responding... huh?  Was Rex watching the same game as the rest of us?

It's always a good trait to learn from past mistakes and never repeat them.  This kind of decision calls into question whether the head coach of the Jets is capable of such a feat.