Dee Milliner has had five surgeries

AP

Whether there are legitimate concerns about Dee Milliner’s ability to stay healthy or whether it’s all part of a smear campaign, the health of the former Alabama cornerback is one of the major topics of conversation in the final days before the NFL draft.

So with everyone buzzing about Milliner’s medical status, Adam Schefter of ESPN offers this note: Milliner has undergone a total of five surgeries: a right knee scope, a repair of a sports hernia, a procedure for a right tibia stress fracture and one surgery on each shoulder.

Milliner is still rehabbing after his most recent shoulder surgery, and he might not be ready for the start of training camp. So it’s easy to see why there are medical questions about him.

But it’s also important to remember this: In his three seasons at Alabama, Milliner missed exactly one game, and in that game (a blowout win over Western Kentucky), coach Nick Saban said Milliner had a minor hip injury and could have played if the team needed him. So while Milliner’s medical history may raise a few eyebrows, his football history says he can get on the field when his team needs him.

52 responses to “Dee Milliner has had five surgeries

  1. Ouch…5 is a lot. Kinda feel bad for the kid in a way. I hope he isnt sandbagged because of badly timed injuries. The next 4 years salary is directly reflective of what teams think of his health.

    Kinda sucks

  2. NFL = bigger players = bigger injuries. If he can’t keep his body in one piece against college competition, he’s going to get ripped to shreds against the pros. I admire his willingness to play through pain, but there comes a point at which you just can’t move your legs or lift your arms anymore.

  3. The NFL also has more cost and price to making a mistake. This is a great prospect, but he needs serious coaching help as he is prone to making a lot of mistakes and he will never be good in the NFL without the coaching support being there for him. You can’t draft this guy in the Top 10 unless you know what you have for a coaching staff in the DB department and you know they can bring the goods to help this player make the most out of himself.

  4. So it sounds like he spent offseasons having the sort of minor procedures the majority of the league have every offseason?

  5. Here’s to hoping he falls to Miami at 12. I’ll bet if he does start dropping, some teams will be putting in calls to move up.

  6. Injuries can’t be ignored while drafting. With that said, if pro competition is better than collegiate, aren’t the medical trainers as well? Not to mention the enormous salary he will be paid that could buy pay doctors for precautionary measures

  7. He’s gonna drop. Other CBs will be taken ahead of him.

    If you have a pick in the top half of the 1st round, you want as close to a sure thing as you can get. A guy with injury history, even if he didn’t miss games in college, is gonna cause some teams to back off.

  8. None of those injuries are something that could become a chronic problem over time such as a knew. The most concerning would be the stress fracture but bones heal better than a ligament does. If this causes him to drop a team could be finding a gem

  9. Missed 1 game in college. Dudes a balla. Surefire top 10 pick all depending on how the cards fall. Can be from anywhere between 4th and 10th. I’d take him in GB but theres no chance he’ll fall that far and very slim chance we trade up that far.

  10. thestrategyexpert says:Apr 23, 2013 2:30 PM

    The NFL also has more cost and price to making a mistake. This is a great prospect, but he needs serious coaching help as he is prone to making a lot of mistakes and he will never be good in the NFL without the coaching support being there for him. You can’t draft this guy in the Top 10 unless you know what you have for a coaching staff in the DB department and you know they can bring the goods to help this player make the most out of himself.

    Talk about a FUTILE attempt to sound intelligent. WOW!

  11. If Milliner slips out of top 10, He won’t last past 12.. Either Jets take him at 9 or a team in bottom half trades up before Jets pick at 13 and picks him!

  12. He played in the SCC…bigger, stronger, faster is what they are accustomed to. Those are bs surgeries. A sports hernia. Is that even worth reporting?

  13. None of these surgeries (or injuries) are uncommon or particularly invasive, therefore it’s no big deal and if it was you would have heard of this coming out of the combine, not two days before the draft.

  14. The shoulders are a worry. He’s not a safety, but still… DBs with bad wings are not a good thing.

  15. I don’t see the hype in Milliner. He played for a stacked defense on a stacked team. Alabama while an SEC team, did beat up on a lot of scrubs (Western Carolina for one).

    Honestly I’d prefer the standout on an average team to a standout on a stacked team any day. Personally I think Desmond Trufant is the best corner in the draft.

  16. Name for me one banged up college player who was not a banged pro?
    Milliner may be a good player but even good players can’t help you on IR.

  17. hell, I have had more than 5 surgeries on my heart, and it is still ticking. each of his surgeries are on a different part. he has lots more parts to injure before he duplicates a part. NO WORRIES.

  18. He won’t get past Detroit at 5. The Lions have been good at drafting this type of player.

  19. Hmm, makes the Bucs look even smarter for the Revis trade. We gave up a first rounder in this year’s draft and this guy was probably the best cb we could have hoped for. I’ll take the best corner in football coming off of one major injury over a college cb who has already had more surgeries before even playing an NFL down.

  20. No dude, the difference between Sanders and Milliner is, “In his three seasons at Alabama, Milliner missed exactly one game…”

    Offseason tweaks are not uncommon.

  21. schmitty2:

    I agree it was a pretty lousy post by my own standards. I said cost and price like as if there is any difference between the two. I realized that after I posted it and wish I could edit it now! Also I have a lot more thoughts on the subject but I try to be extra brief now since I have a tendency to make long posts. I’ll make up for it with a smarter post in the future, sorry to let you down this time!

  22. He’ll fit perfectly into the Redskins plans. Have several surgeries and still be counted on to help the team. Rebuilding for another ten years without a doubt.

  23. I have no stake in this but I really don’t see him falling out of the top 10. I agree that he doesn’t seem head and shoulders better than Rhodes or Trufant, and played behind Dre Kirkpatrick, who didn’t go til late in the 1st a couple years back, but too many top 10 teams have problems at CB and they’re hoping for the next Richard Sherman or Patrick Peterson… If this was a year when there were more standout guys, he would be a mid 1st round pick, but this isn’t that year.

  24. The Bucs are spreading rumors again like they did with DaQuan Bowers in hopes that he’ll fall to the second round. Ain’t gonna happen, top 6 pick.

  25. Milliner may fall in the draft because of his injury history also, he couldn’t hang on to the ball at the combine–he was playing with a torn labrum–

    BUT, the farther down he goes, the better chances he has of getting on a team with a winning record…he may not mind that.

    He’s off the board in the 1st round is my feeling.

  26. 5 surgeries + numerous other injuries he “played through” constitute a legitimate medical concern. Whomever portrays it as a smear campaign are not being truthful

  27. Lol! All of the pundits out there also said Adrian Peterson was injury prone! Even with the gruesome knee injury he has only missed 3 games in 5 yrs.

  28. audioflint says: Apr 23, 2013 2:47 PM

    Injuries can’t be ignored while drafting. With that said, if pro competition is better than collegiate, aren’t the medical trainers as well? Not to mention the enormous salary he will be paid that could buy pay doctors for precautionary measures
    ___________
    Yes and no.
    1. Injuries definitely can’t be ignored while drafting; but they can’t be overestimated either: every year teams pass up great players due to injury concerns. 6 teams passed on AP because his shoulder might not have been as shouldery as it used to be
    2. The training staff is; but surgeries are done by surgeons. Which is why Marcus Lattimore went to James Andrews and will be playing professional football instead of hopping around a Ford dealership.
    3. Teams pay for medical insurance, which pays for doctors. Nobody can actually afford doctors: I just had my labrum fixed for 18 grand, it cost me just under 1,000. (In case you were wondering where your tax dollars go: state gov’t-> lobbyists-> meidcal insurance-> quarterbacking my co-ed flag football league– you’re welcome)

  29. Anyone who passes on Milliner will be sorry a few years down the road. Anyone who knows the sport well can tell you that he has what it takes to become one of the league’s elite shutdown Corners. Missing one game throughout your whole college career is pretty damn reliable. Surgery or no surgery, Milliner has shown his toughness. Add the reliability with the toughness, toss in excellent coverage skills, good speed, great run support and above average tackling skills and you have another young Revis.

    I am hoping Buffalo will take Milliner with their #8 and use their 2nd round pick on Nassib if he’s still available. Milliner coupled with Stephon Gilmore would be one fierce CB duo.

  30. Teams want this guy to drop. This wouldn’t be news otherwise. I wonder if this ever works.

  31. Have to wonder which team is going WAY out there to release this infox in hope of the kid falling. Most players will have had surgery, and as Kong as he keeps getting up, draft him.

  32. He’s going to the Browns and that will put them in the conversation of having the best CB tandem in the league. The part I’m interested in is seeing if the Browns’ brass can somehow get back into the 2nd round and still get this guy. I’d have to give them an A+ if they pull that off.

  33. EJ says:
    Apr 23, 2013 8:15 PM
    Anyone who passes on Milliner will be sorry a few years down the road. Anyone who knows the sport well can tell you that he has what it takes to become one of the league’s elite shutdown Corners. Missing one game throughout your whole college career is pretty damn reliable. Surgery or no surgery, Milliner has shown his toughness. Add the reliability with the toughness, toss in excellent coverage skills, good speed, great run support and above average tackling skills and you have another young Revis.

    I am hoping Buffalo will take Milliner with their #8 and use their 2nd round pick on Nassib if he’s still available. Milliner coupled with Stephon Gilmore would be one fierce CB duo.
    ______________
    Coming from a non-Bills fan, that would be the perfect set of picks, yall deserve your time back in the sun– figuratively that is; do they even have a sun in Buffalo?

  34. leggett17 says: Apr 23, 2013 8:12 PM

    SCC is the lo IQ conference…… Dude is a bust.
    _________
    Thank god they have “lo IQs”, think about what would happen if they weren’t: you’d have guys like Patrick Willis, both Mannings, AJ Green, and Julio Jones tearing up the league. And I’m always excited when a division rival drafts a dweeb like Matt Stafford, Aaron Hernandez, Eric Berry, Percy Harvin, Darren McFadden, Cam Newton or the Pouncey brothers.

    I don’t understand how GM’s aren’t aware of the long track record of “lo IQ” SEC busts like Emmitt Smith, Bart Starr, Dermontti Dawson, Joe Namath, and Reggie White.

  35. gammynomnom says: Apr 23, 2013 9:29 PM

    Dee will be fine. Just get drafted by the Redskins kid and a little SHANACADABRA!!! and you will be on the field from game one.
    _________
    My fellow Redskins fans are like getting stuck bringing a dorky friend to a party. Inherently I like you, but stop embarrassing our fan base so that we can get back to actually talking about football.

  36. shadylamp says: Apr 23, 2013 9:02 PM

    He’s going to the Browns and that will put them in the conversation of having the best CB tandem in the league. The part I’m interested in is seeing if the Browns’ brass can somehow get back into the 2nd round and still get this guy. I’d have to give them an A+ if they pull that off.
    ________
    That would unquestionably be the best CB tandem in the league, but the chance of picking up a second round pick and Milliner are about the same as Olivia Wilde reading this post, thinking it’s really clever, and proposing to me on the spot. I don’t think Milliner gets past the Bills at 8, and definitely not past the Jets at 9 or the Titans at 10. That gives Cleveland one trading partner, and even Arizona might take Milliner.

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