After two years in the NFL, Buffalo Bills pass rusher Aaron Maybin may be at a career crossroads entering the 2011 season. His head coach, Chan Gailey, has said that Maybin is "on the outside looking in" going into his third professional season, then barely softened his stance months later. While he still has a modicum of support from GM Buddy Nix and plenty from his teammates, 2011 may be a make-or-break year for the former first-round pick.
Maybin is a favorite punching bag of Bills fans, but it's not as if he's had it easy. Reportedly, he was dealing with the sudden death of an infant son just two weeks prior to the start of training camp last summer. In two years, he's played two different positions in two different defensive schemes (though for the same position coach). He's fighting the stigma of being a draft bust despite being just 23 years old; only six of his Bills teammates (including five rookies) are younger.
Yet his lack of impact - which goes beyond the realm of statistics to the point where he's not even providing much competition for playing time alongside players just as young and inexperienced - understandably sucks a lot of the compassion out of Maybin's story (aside from the death of his son, of course). Our question for you this morning: knowing that he's under contract for at least three more seasons, would 2011 be too soon to give up on the Maybin project?