Michael Carter II felt a tinge of frustration when his ankle injury — the same one that sidelined him for most of training camp — flared up Monday, and though he doesn’t expect it to be an issue that lingers long term, the Jets’ nickel cornerback understands he’ll need to operate with caution for now.
He learned about this last year.
Even after he returned from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for two weeks, Carter needed to be careful.
To keep strengthening it.
Maybe take a little longer warming up to ensure it could handle the movements and cuts and sprints that would fill a game.
His ability to navigate another delicate injury and remain available will play a critical role in the defense’s quest to rebound from a Week 1 embarrassment against the 49ers.
Days before the start of the season, the Jets made Carter the highest-paid slot corner in the NFL with a three-year, $30.75 million extension. He collected two tackles in 19 snaps to start Monday’s game.
Then the ankle forced him to exit.
“There’s a possibility of certain things aggravating it and stuff like that,” Carter told The Post after practice Thursday. “And that is what it is. It’s part of it. But I feel like I’m definitely in a better place as far as, like, this week versus how it felt on Monday.”
Head coach Robert Saleh said Monday that Carter could’ve finished the game if needed — a sentiment Carter echoed Thursday — and added the next day that though he’d be a limited participant in practice, Carter wasn’t in danger of missing the Week 2 game against the Titans.
When asked about his comfort with the Jets’ nickel depth in case the injury keeps popping up, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich listed Isaiah Oliver, Brandin Echols and Ashtyn Davis as defensive backs who could log snaps in the slot if needed.
Last year, after suffering the hamstring injury, Carter relied on the training and strength staffs when returning and building back up.
He tried to be intentional when warming up, with everything revolving around the goal of putting “a callus over it so things don’t happen again.”
“That helped me kind of put that hamstring and all that stuff in the rearview,” Carter said. “So, same thing with this, just staying with the plan and just being more intentional with the preparation — and I’ll be 100 percent.”
It worked once.
Carter didn’t miss any additional time after returning from his hamstring injury in Week 13 against the Falcons.
He tied his career high for passes defended (nine) by the end of the season.
This year, with a different setback, Carter — and by extension the Jets’ secondary — will bank on that caution paying off again.
Week 1, though, provided a glimpse at how complicated that process can get.
“The process is right,” Ulbrich said of Carter. “The attitude is right. The approach is right. He’s just gonna continue to get better as he gets his legs underneath him.”
