Milliner.JPG

Cornerback Dee Milliner was the Jets' first-round pick in the draft, No. 9 overall, and could very well be the answer to the departed Darrelle Revis.

(Jim O'Connor/USA TODAY)

Dan Werner, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss, likes his passers to enter the game as confident as possible. His goal is to make them feel like they can throw anywhere against anyone.

He also knows there’s a need to make exceptions, like when the Rebels played Alabama last season and cornerback Dee Milliner was on the other side of the field.

"Very rarely do we look at a guy and say ‘Hey, let’s throw away from that guy,’ " Werner said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We want our players to feel like they can go against anybody. But Dee, he was the type you would (avoid). You tell the quarterback to throw to the other side."

Werner has been scouting opposing cornerbacks for years, and remembers watching tape of a raw Deion Sanders, who would trick quarterbacks into throwing his way by deliberately baiting them, creating the illusion he was out of position.

Milliner, though, didn’t play any games. On film he is much less calculated. Boring, almost. He’ll be blanketed over the wide receiver, no lurking, no hiding.

"As a quarterback, you’ll see a guy you think is open against a normal DB, so you throw the ball," said Werner. "But in the back of your mind, you’re thinking ‘wait a minute, that’s Milliner out there.’'"

When the Jets open their rookie mini-camp Friday morning in Florham Park, the coaching staff will get its first look at how Milliner, the team’s top draft pick and No. 9 overall, fits into the defense.

With the loss of All Pro Darrelle Revis, the position is down a dominant cover corner, quite possibly the best man defender in football.

They hope to see the same thing as those who spent last season game-planning against Milliner. Hesitant coordinators, panicked quarterbacks.

The transition to the NFL has the potential to wipe out all the glowing reports, of course. Players of similar talent have been swallowed by a massive learning curve.

For example, Milliner’s former teammates, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick of the Bengals and safety Mark Barron of the Bucs, finished outside the top 70 in position ratings during their rookie seasons last year, according to analytical site Pro Football Focus.

But for the coordinators who tracked Milliner last season, they see a heady prospect who should be able to plug in quickly.

"If it were any other team (besides Alabama), there would have been a big red circle around him," said Brad Glenn, the offensive coordinator at Western Carolina, another Alabama opponent. "And we would have said, ‘Let’s find where he is and go away from him.’ "

Glenn and Werner said they project Milliner as a safety later in his career because of the understanding and maturity he showed in Alabama’s multiple defense — even if his speed fades, he would still have the instinct and physicality to extend his career. His transition from nickel to the outside looked effortless after his freshman year.

He could float across the defense without much of a lag, forcing teams to eventually have to throw in his direction.

"The verbiage and the terminology, he’s going to hear a lot of the same things in Rex’s scheme," said Glenn, who studied under Ryan and the Jets during a training camp session two years ago.

"I think that translates well into him coming in and being successful, and being successful early. It’s not going to take him too much time."

After heavy film sessions leading up to the draft, where he logged each of Milliner’s first three years of tape, Jets scout Jay Mandolesi came away with a similar conclusion.

"I didn’t have any questions," Mandolesi, the Jets’ primary scout on Milliner, said shortly after the draft. "He made a lot of plays on the ball, you could see the athletic ability. As far as the player goes, I didn’t have any doubts."

Eventually, Werner’s quarterback, Bo Wallace, took aim at Milliner in the Rebels’ 33-14 loss to Alabama last season. The first two fell incomplete, and a third, on a third-and-15 pass down the sideline, was picked off.

"If I’m a GM looking for a cover corner," Werner said, "what more could I ask for?"

Conor Orr: corr@starledger.com