Questions For Those Who Have Seen

[DazedandConfused]

now they just have to figure out how to stop teams on the ground on 1st and 2nd downs to make 3rd downs matter so they use Maybin.

 

anything less than 3rd and 5 - Maybin is a liability against the run

This goes a bit too far in an assessment from what I hear.

 

Maybin's specialty is certainly the speed rush around the edge, but while this is his game and will be his focus since he is a real mutant in terms of demonstrated flat-out speed (an indicator not to be simply accepted flat out as rush play is rarely straight line but though it should not be taken without question it is relevant and should not be totally ignored also), he also has shown some good ability holding the line against the rush.

 

Specifically,

 

1. He was often called upon to play the strong side so he gained experience wading through the TE and often faced off against rushers sent to the strong side. PSU performed well, it is my understanding against the rush with Maybin and it goes over the top to claim he is a liability against the rush.

 

2. The other thing that facing off against a TE did for him is that he was forced to develop effective second moves in order to rack up his 12 sacks in a mere college season.

 

Again, in order for one to make intelligent comments about the possibilities that Maybin offers and also takes into account what he does not do as well in the key is the Bills will rely heavily on a rotation. On first and 10 the Bills will likely start Schobel and Kelsay as our DEs. Kelsay's specialty is being stout against the run and Schobel elevated himself to Pro Bowl recognition status as he developed his strength at the point of attack in his first few years (a neat trick since this strength emerged while he was also dumping 15 pounds from his base weight as under Gray the team used him more in pass coverage in the zone blitz.

 

Maybin may be a situational rusher for now (as he gains more experience as a Pro he will learn how to apply his body in ways that maximize his leverage and use of his speed) but he is gonna be used in our rotation on 3rd and 5 if/when the Kelsay/Schobel/Stroud/Williams crew bottles up two straight running attempts and makes 3rd down a passing down. Further, if Stroud should shoot the gap on 1st or the opponent decides to pass and the Bills secondary locks them down and Schobel gets one of his patented relentless effort sacks then second down may also be a passing down and you bring Maybin in early on a 2nd and 10 or greater.

 

What sounds good about Maybin are three things:

 

1. At PSU his specialty was the speed rush, but he has shown himself to be a smart player who can both recognize when the other team tries a run on lets say 2nd and 7 and further that he has demonstrated strength at the POA against TEs and has a reasonable chance of being stout against the run rather than being a liability.

 

2. The key to whether Maybin becomes an extraordinary player is going to be whether his recognition is good enough to recognize whether the TE is going into the short zone or an RB coming through is faking a block on him and actually is going out for the screen while the backpedaling QB sucks him in to a futile rush and then dumps it over his head. If Maybin is good enough at recognizing the screen or uses well the long arms which Jauron talked about he will be a formidable player.

 

3. If Maybin shows a mutant level first step he demonstrated in college as a Pro, blockers facing him will need to lean in toward him and cheat to being ready for his first step. If the Bills use a zone blitz which sees Maybin at most fake the rush but drop back into short zone pass coverage, the blocker may be left standing there waiting for Maybin who never comes as he guards against the short pass and our SLB whizzes in untouched for the sack (in a perfect world, Maybin proves to be so mutantly quick that the O is forced to assign not only one blocker to take him on directly but also has a second blocker watching him to launch a chip block on him if the beats the lead blocker with his first step.

 

If Maybin proves to be the force we want as a rusher he may at times occupy two blockers on a zone blitz play while an opportunistic SLB swoops in untouched for the kill.

[The Big Cat]

Maybin had the big burst at his playing weigth of 237

 

remains to be seen if he keeps the playing speed at 250

 

then let's leave it at that.

[Flbillsfan#1]

anything less than 3rd and 5 - and I would be running right at Maybin,

So when it's 3rd & short the Bills bring in Denney for Maybin, no problem.

[DazedandConfused]

So when it's 3rd & short the Bills bring in Denney for Maybin, no problem.

My sense is that the rotation looks something like:

 

Schobel/Williams/Stroud/Kelsay as your starters- Their job is to be stout against the run on first down and be opportunistic in trying to sack the QB if the O attempts to pass. Who rotates in depends upon the success of this unit and the down and distance of the second play and also how individual match-ups seem to working out.

 

Lets say that on first down the other team runs for three yards then you likely keep the first unit in. However. lets say they try to pass and it goes incomplete or even better Stroud reads the pass and blows through and sacks the QB so it is an obvious passing down, then I rotate in:

 

Maybin/Denney/Johnson/Schobel.

 

In each case I am giving one DE and the DT next to him a primary assignment of make the sack or watch the line (Maybin goes for it and Denney is prepared for the draw or some run and Johnson goes for it and Schobel has an assignment of watch for the run.

 

I have 7 DL players in my rotation (maybe 8 if I have not given up on Ellis yet as it may be too soon to do this in his second year but he was fairly unimpressive last year so he better show me something in pre-season. Folks like McCargo and Bryan I thank them for their service and wish them well but I am done with them. I think one of the keys to this set-up is that I really can use a swing guy who can play both DE and DT and my sense is that Denney has shown the most ability to be this swing player from what I have seen of this crew.

[Bill from NYC]

Also, you could see the Bills switch to 3-4 on occasion just to give a QB a different look.

 

Nah....they really do not have a nose.If they wanted one, they could have grabbed the DT from Temple, but I might be partial. He really did shoot way up. I think Jax took him.