Jets outside linebacker Aaron Maybin lives near Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps in Maryland. The two shared a few meals this offseason in Baltimore, and Maybin was able to see up close what an Olympic diet looks like.
“He eats like one of us,” Maybin said, pointing to his NFL teammates.
While Maybin did not adopt Phelps’ famed 12,000 calories-a-day diet, the 24-year-old did try to pack on some pounds entering this season. He said he is eating between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day to bulk up. Maybin hopes to play around 250 pounds this season after playing last year around 230.
Maybin was the biggest surprise on the Jets in 2011. Picked off the scrap heap by the team not once, but twice, Maybin flourished as a pass-rushing specialist, notching six sacks in 13 games. Now, he hopes to expand his role and be more of a three-down linebacker.
“They wanted me to be able to play every down,” Maybin said of the coaches. “Feasibly, [for] somebody that’s 228, 229, it’s hard to do that. It’s not impossible, but when you’re going against guys that are 330, 340, 350, you get to play 40, 50 [percent] of the game, it’s tough. I definitely felt it last year. After the season, I had to take a few weeks to really just get my body together.
“Having a little bit of extra weight on you, it helps you deal with the ground and pound of the season and all that kind of stuff. It definitely gives you a better anchor when you’re playing against the run. That was a big goal of mine during the offseason, to become a better run defender as well as improve my pass rush.”
The Jets grabbed Maybin last August after the Bills, who drafted him in the first round in 2009, let him go. He did not make the team out of training camp, but was re-signed three weeks into the season.
Jets coach Rex Ryan said last week he believes Maybin has “just scratched the surface.”
“I expect him to have a big year rushing the passer for us,” Ryan said. “And I also think knowing the system better, I think there’s some things that we can do with him. Maybe it’s some base situations as a backup that we can use him [in] also.”
When Maybin arrived last season, Mike Smith, then a coaching intern and now the outside linebackers coach, told Maybin to simplify things. The coaches worked with Maybin on forgetting everything from Buffalo, where he wore the “bust” label, and concentrating on a few pass-rush moves.
New defensive line coach Karl Dunbar has been working with Maybin on honing his repertoire. Instead of adding too much, they are working on perfecting what he already does.
“One of the biggest things [Dunbar] first said to me is keep it simple,” Maybin said. “You do three things well. We’re going to do counters off those three things and we’re going to perfect those three things. The best pass rushers in the NFL have two moves. But they do them so well that you can’t defend them and when you do overcompensate to defend one they hit you with a counter to it.”
Maybin wore a wristband early on last year because he admittedly did not know the playbook.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I was thrown into the fire.”
Now, Maybin has a firm grasp on what’s expected of him and others in the defense. The Jets are also experimenting with moving Maybin around in formations. Rather than just having him as an edge rusher, he could line up as a down lineman or an inside linebacker.
“You don’t know where the rush is coming from,” Maybin said. “So how are you going to scheme against it before the play? That’s something that we definitely see as possibly being an advantage for us.”
That will come in the fall. For now, Maybin has another meal to eat.
“If I never see another chicken in my life after this year,” Maybin said, “it might be too soon.”
* The Jets will allow the public at two of their minicamp practices next week.
Practices on June 13 and 14 at the team’s headquarters in Florham Park, N.J., will be open to fans. Practice begins on both days at 11 a.m. Gates will open at 10 a.m. and Jets Fest will be open from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. each day. Admission and parking are free, but parking is limited.