Interesting Maybin Article in the News

[#27TheDominator]



http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/jets-intern-mike-smith-helped-aaron-maybin-sack-monster-rex-ryan-defense-article-1.989697

Jets intern Mike Smith (l.) has been big part of Aaron Maybin’s resurgence this season.

John Middlebrook /Landov

Jets LB Aaron Maybin

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They celebrated together with a mid-air shoulder bump on the sideline. When Aaron Maybin sacked Redskins’ quarterback Rex Grossman to seal a Jets victory last week, he wanted to share the moment with the man that has helped revive his career.

Mike Smith’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the Jets’ official roster, a list that includes 19 coaches on staff. He’s not on the team’s website. To most Jets fans, he doesn’t exist.

As a coaching intern, Smith beats the sun to work each day, doing “the grunt work,” Rex Ryan says, electronically diagramming plays for the defensive game-plans, helping defensive coordinator Mike Pettine run meetings, logging up to 20 hours a day, pitching in any way he can.

Smith, 30, gets a nominal paycheck every couple weeks. He lives rent-free in Pettine’s townhouse near the team facility.

He’s also Maybin’s de facto personal coach, spending countless hours helping the former Bills first-round pick find his way.

“Without him, I’d probably be a fish without fins in the open sea,” says Maybin, who is an NFL Comeback Player of the Year candidate with his team-high six sacks and four forced fumbles in nine games. “He understands me better than any of my coaches since I was in college. He’s one of the biggest reasons I’m doing what I’m doing now.”

Smith is the bridge between Pettine and Maybin, part-tutor, part-mentor, streamlining information for the outside linebacker to digest. Smith conveys the same techniques and lessons that Ryan and Pettine taught him when he played linebacker for the Ravens for two seasons.

“He’s a relentless worker,” Pettine says. “He knows the system. He’s played in it. That’s one of the reasons why it was a natural draw for him to come here. He’s one of us.”

Smith is always willing to provide insight. When Maybin missed an opportunity for a sack on Tom Brady earlier this season, Smith noticed that the player was unusually quiet after the game. Maybin couldn’t sleep that night. He sent Smith a text at 3 a.m.: “It’ll never happen again. I will make it up to you next week.”

“I believe in second chances,” Smith says. “He looks at me and knows that I’d do anything for him and he’d do anything for me. I believe in him. In Buffalo, nobody believed in him.”

They’re an unlikely pair. Somehow, a coaching intern from west Texas and a former first-round disappointment from Baltimore have ignited the Jets’ pass rush.

“He trusts me,” Maybin says. “He respects me just like I respect him. He understands how much I put into it, just like I understand how much he puts into it. He’s one of the hardest working coaches we have. He expects big plays from me, just like I’m beginning to expect from myself. I really feel as though we are taking a lot of these steps together.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/jets-intern-mike-smith-helped-aaron-maybin-sack-monster-rex-ryan-defense-article-1.989697#ixzz1gFVbSWva

[#27TheDominator]

When Wes Welker and Mike Smith picked up a box of hairless rats from Walter’s World of Pets in Lubbock, Tex., nobody on the Texas Tech football team was safe. The wide receiver and linebacker were prideful pranksters, college roommates and best friends. Sometimes they joined forces by unleashing those rats on unsuspecting teammates in the running backs’ meeting room. Other times, they went rogue, like the day Smith filled up a bucket with fireworks and set them off right by Welker’s ear as he was napping upstairs.

“Oh, man,” Welker says with a laugh now. “We had a dog. He wouldn’t go upstairs for the rest of the time we lived there.”

In 2005, Smith caught the eye of Ravens scout Ron Marciniak, who told then-Baltimore defensive coordinator Rex Ryan that the Texas Tech linebacker would be an ideal late-round pick. Smith embodied Ryan’s “Play Like A Raven” mantra. He was tough. Nobody out-worked him.

So, the Ravens selected Smith in the seventh round of the 2005 draft. He was everything that Marciniak promised. He contributed on special teams and played strong-side, weak-side, inside, middle and outside linebacker. He absorbed lessons from teammates Ray Lewis, Jarret Johnson, Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott.

“He was explosive, he was fast, and he was fearless,” Scott says. “Mike would hit the s--- out of you.”

Everything changed on Nov. 12, 2006, in Nashville, Tenn.

Smith, making his first career start for a banged-up Lewis, suffered a grievous injury on the first play of the game. He was cut by Titans center - and former Jet - Kevin Mawae on a run blitz. Smith landed awkwardly on his outstretched left arm and tore his labrum, rotator cuff, biceps tendon and dislocated his shoulder. His arm was burning. His shoulder was out of its socket. He felt like he was on fire.

But Smith promised Ryan and Pettine before the game that he would finish. He didn’t want to let them down. So, he stayed in for the remainder of the opening series, his shoulder hanging loosely.

Smith underwent four surgeries over the next year and a half and never played again. His career lasted only 14 games.

“It never felt right,” Smith says, raising his arm as high as he can to demonstrate the point. “It still doesn’t feel right. It bothers me every single day. I just can’t lift it up past 90 degrees. It just grinds. It hurts all the time.”

The reality of never playing again hit Smith hard. Football was more than a passion. It was his first love. He gained 45 pounds and ballooned to 270.

“I was at that spot where I was just now showing what I can do… and like that, it was gone,” Smith says.

He reached an injury settlement with the Ravens and returned to Lubbock. He hooked on as the linebackers coach at the University of Hawaii for one season before accepting an intern position with the Jets before the 2010 season.

He was trying to carve out a new career path. Not far away in western New York, a former college star was trying to find his way too.

***

Before Maybin’s popularity soared, before the Jets started selling No. 51 jerseys with “MAYHEM” stretched across the back, the pass rushing specialist was looking for direction when he was re-signed three weeks into the season.

Smith offered that and much more. Maybin reminded him of himself. They shared the same work ethic and passion. So, Smith, who helps all the outside linebackers, quietly made a promise to always be there for Maybin. They barely knew each other, but he felt that it was the right thing to do.

The intern helped compartmentalize Maybin’s workload. He told him to shelve most of his pass-rush moves and focus on his speed rush. Soon, they focused on his up-and-under move, which worked to perfection in a game-sealing sack against the Redskins. Maybin’s grasp of the defense grew at a faster rate than the coaching staff believed possible thanks, in part, to Smith’s tutelage.

“He probably spends more time than a whole lot of the other coaches on all the small parts of everyday practice that people don’t even recognize,” Maybin says. “On top of that, he’s spending hours upon hours working with me. Obviously, I’m grateful for a reason. He’s gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to me. He’s definitely done a lot as far as helping to bring me along that he didn’t have to do. He knows how good I want to be and I think he wants to help me get there.”

Maybin, who wears a playcall wristband, was a part of three of the five main defensive packages last week for the first time and played 53% of the defensive snaps. Thanks to Smith’s guidance, he’s learning to play along the defensive line rather than from just outside the tackles. Pettine has entrusted Smith to teach Maybin the nuances of playing different positions other than traditional outside linebacker.

“He’s in a good spot with a great defense and great defensive minds with Coach Ryan and Pettine,” Welker says. “He’s learning a lot. I think people will take notice of just how smart he is, how dedicated he is and how much he loves the game. Everything is going to come together for him.”

Pettine believes “it’s only a matter of time” before Smith takes the next step in his career. “The work is being recognized,” Pettine says. “It’s like the ‘It Factor’ with coaches. You either have ‘It’ or you don’t. And he’s got ‘It.’”

Although Smith’s internship expires after the season, Maybin believes “he’ll get looked out for” by the Jets if they remain on the same path.

Maybin’s improbable rise has boosted an otherwise pedestrian pass rush. According to Pro Football Focus, Maybin has accounted for 20 total pressures on 129 pass-rushing snaps. He brings pressure every 6.45 pass-rushing snaps, ninth best in the league. By comparison, Cowboys’ perennial Pro Bowler DeMarcus Ware brings pressure every 7.47 pass-rushing snaps.

Smith refuses to take credit, praising Maybin’s work ethic above all else. Like his protégé, he also refuses to look back at what might have been in his own career.

“I know what happened to me is just life,” Smith says. “I truly believe that my calling was to be a coach. I’ve gone through some hard times. Aaron’s gone through some hard times. It’s how you react to those hard times that matters.”

On Thursday afternoon, they were joking around inside the fieldhouse at the Jets facility when a reporter walked up to Smith.

“You’re famous!” Maybin told his coach.

They laughed at how strange that sounded.

So much has changed for Aaron Maybin and Mike Smith in the past few months. They shook their heads, grateful their paths had crossed and thankful that they had made a difference in each other’s lives.

[#27TheDominator]

Items I found particularly interesting:

• Mike Smith, an unpaid intern seems to have some responsibility and is best buddies and roomed in college with Wes Welker, seriously
  
• He specifically states that he limited Maybin's pass rushing moves and had him concentrate on the speed rush. This is probably very good news for us because some of us were wondering while he rarely does anything but bust a$$ up field and dip his shoulder.
  
• Maybin was apparently in on 53% of the snaps against Washington because Smith has him playing some DLine and Maybin is part of 3 of the 5 main packages at this point. We probably see him at line because of the injury to Devito, but it is good news that he is becoming more versatile.
  

[Jetscode1]

Great read...I'm excited for both their futures...hopefully Smith sticks around and earned a paid position. Thanks for posting.