Justin Miller, the cornerback and kickoff returner who was the Jets’ only Pro Bowl player last season, is expected to miss the rest of the year after suffering a knee injury in Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

The loss of Miller, who was hurt on what looked like a fairly ordinary tackle on his only kickoff return against Baltimore, is a big one for the Jets, who may have to move other players around on offense, defense, and special teams to replace Miller adequately. Miller’s skills as a return man gave the Jets’ offense a major boost in field position last season that they’ll miss this year, and his absence in the secondary will make it harder for the defense to match up when the opposing offense spreads the field.

The immediate question for the Jets is who will replace Miller as a kickoff returner. Last season, Miller led the league in kickoff returns with a 28.3-yard average, and although the Jets have several players who have experience returning kicks, none of them have Miller’s pure speed, or his instincts for finding holes in the opposing team’s kickoff coverage.

Kickoff return options include running back Leon Washington and wide receivers Brad Smith and Wallace Wright, all of whom returned kickoffs in the preseason while Miller nursed a hamstring injury. Rookie receiver Chansi Stuckey, the Jets’ seventh-round draft pick, would have been an ideal choice to take over the job, but Stuckey is also out for the season, with a foot injury. Washington was the most impressive of the group in the preseason and is the most likely choice to replace Miller.

But giving the kickoff return job to Washington, who also returns punts, likely limits the Jets’ ability to get production out of him on offense. Washington has the talent to spell starting running back Thomas Jones and contribute as both a runner and a receiver, and he has played well when given the opportunity on offense. But returning kicks is a demanding job, and few players who handle both punt and kickoff returns do much of anything else.

As great a kickoff returner as he is, the Jets chose Miller in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft to play cornerback, and he never developed into the kind of defensive player they hoped he would. In particular, Miller had a terrible game in this season’s opener, when he tried — and failed badly — to cover Patriots’ receiver Randy Moss.

But that doesn’t mean losing Miller won’t hurt the defense. One fewer defensive back on the 53-man roster means less flexibility in the Jets’ nickel-and-dime packages, when they need another cornerback on the field in addition to starters Darrelle Revis and David Barrett. NFL offenses increasingly play three, four, or five wide receivers on the field at the same time, and that means the Jets need as many warm bodies as they can possibly have at cornerback. The Jets’ roster currently has a decent group of backup cornerbacks in Hank Poteat, Andre Dyson, and Drew Coleman, but as the season wears on, more injuries are almost assured, and they’ll miss the depth that Miller provided.

Losing Miller makes the Jets’ decision to trade up in the first round of this year’s draft to select Revis look even better than it already did. Revis has played very well in the first two weeks and, despite missing 22 training camp practices in a contract dispute, is already one of the team’s best defensive players. Revis has, more or less, the same athletic skills as Miller, but Revis is a much more physical defensive player. The Jets could even decide to use Revis in Miller’s place as a kickoff returner, but they would likely calculate that adding that to his other responsibilities would be too much to expect of a rookie.

Despite all the talent that Miller has, this injury raises the question of whether he’ll ever be a productive NFL player again. Miller is just 23 years old and will have almost a full year to recover before he has to take the field again, but his greatest assets are his speed and his ability to change direction quickly. Serious knee injuries, even after they’ve been surgically repaired and thoroughly rehabilitated, sometimes rob players of those skills for the rest of their careers.

Miller was arrested for assault in May and already had an arrest record dating back to his college career at Clemson when the Jets drafted him. He’ll have to stay out of trouble off the field while devoting all his energy to his rehab, or else it’s fair to wonder whether the Pro Bowl he made at age 22 will be his last. And it’s fair to wonder whether the Jets have enough players on the rest of the roster to fill all the holes Miller’s absence creates.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.