Published: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 4:07 PM Updated: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 4:48 PM
By Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger Follow
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William Perlman/The Star-LedgerOutside linebacker Aaron Maybin expects to be more useful in the defense this year and said he understands the playbook much better than last year.Aaron Maybin admitted that, at no point last year, did he have the opportunity to grasp the playbook in it's entirety. It hampered him from playing at full speed because around him, he wasn't sure what everyone else on the defense was doing.
"I never did, not last year," Maybin said. "The first four or five weeks of the season I had to have all the little plays I had on a wristband. I had no idea what I was doing, I got thrown into the fire."
After a run of success, he bounced around the field to try and sidestep defensive adjustments, something that slowed him down toward the end of last year.
But Maybin insists he understands the Jets defense better than ever before and thinks he has a chance to put up some serious numbers this year. He has a sack total in his mind, though he refused to share it.
Today during OTAs was the first in a continuation of last year's adjustments to get Maybin more open looks at the quarterback. He said he expects to be used in more than just third-and-forever situations and get mixed in against the run and with the base defense.
"We did a lot of that today, that's going to help out a lot too," Maybin said. "It's one thing when you know where a guy is coming from, like if you know a guy is rushing from the right side the entire time you can neutralize one player by double-teaming, by sliding, protection. But when you've got guys lining up once from the middle linebacker and once from the outside, you don't know where the rush is coming from so how are you going to scheme against it before the play?"
Maybin said the weight gain will help, something that will make him night and day physically from last year if he can maintain the 245-55 goal he had in mind. Unlike Joe McKnight -- who claimed to gain a substantial amount of his offseason weight from McDonalds -- Maybin said he did it with "old school hard work."
"I just think that he's just scratched the surface," Rex Ryan said. "I think that having (defensive line coach) Karl Dunbar here really working on his pass rush will help. I think he's going to be one of the big guys that benefit from having an expert like Karl Dunbar here.
"What his numbers are going to be, I don't want to place too many things on him because that's a problem I always run into, but I expect him to have a big year rushing the passer for us."
