Veteran safety Rontez Miles has come a long way the last few weeks. While an eye injury will keep him out of Sunday's matchup with the Bills, Miles is in a much better spot than he was on Aug. 19 in Detroit.
"They were saying there was blood on the sideline. I couldn't open my eye and see clearly," he told reporters of his injury suffered against the Lions. "I just remember them putting pressure on my eye. At that point, when I heard blood, I was real nervous. At that point, I was more nervous about my eye, my vision, my health. That was traumatizing, but it wasn't as bad as when we went inside."
During the Jets' second preseason contest, a Lions offensive lineman got up underneath Miles' facemask and broke his orbital bone in two places.
"It was a run play and I was in the C-gap. The tackle came off at the end and he came up to me," Miles said. "He shot his hand into my eye. It had to be a finger because where it hit at. It was bad, but look at it. It looks good, right?"
Miles said surgery went "smoothly" and the veteran safety has his (blackened) eye set on a return. The 28-year-old, who tackled compartment syndrome back in 2014, referred to this as another freakish injury.
"I tell the staff I'm Wolverine," he said with a trademark smile. "I heal fast. I feel amazing."
The only thing the 6'0", 203-pound Miles doesn't feel good about is not playing Sunday. His 19 special teams tackles over the past two seasons have paced the club and he also gives the Jets depth options behind rookies Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye.
"It's going to be hard. I don't think there is any good way to watch this game," he said. "We need to win, it's a divisional game. I hope the guys do what they need to do, but it's going to be hard to watch whether I'm there or on TV."
