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FeedSchobel's exit gives Maybin his chance
I'm glad it's over, actually, the whole "I'm done/OK, maybe I'll play/Yeah I'll definitely play" routine we've been treated to by the Buffalo Bills' Aaron Schobel.
This tiresome affair long ago began to drag along like an Ambien-saturated snail wriggling through caramel-covered quicksand. I'd compare it to Brett Favre's annual Avoid Training Camp Shuffle, except people actually care whether he comes back for another season.
Bills training camp has actually been transpiring for a full week now (I know, I was just as surprised to hear it), and on Monday the team announced it would cut Schobel loose. In one of those "business moves" that widens the chasm of alienation between the NFL and its increasingly confused fanbase, the team invited him back to its ranks only to send him walking.
Yeah, I can't make sense of it either. But in any case, it's time to move on, for the good of both parties.
Schobel's been a trooper on the right defensive end for some forgettable, well below-average teams for much of the 2000s, a Pro Bowl caliber defensive end who was probably overpaid but was nevertheless a bright beacon when compared to his dimly-lit teammates. So, this isn't to detract from what's been a productive pro career ... although it's kind of coming off like that, huh?
My feeling was that sure, he wanted to return, but not with Buffalo, a franchise grinding its gears and spinning its tires worse than my old 1986 Ford Tempo. Who can blame the guy for wanting to experience playoff football for once and realizing it's not going to happen here?
This same scenario seems to be an eventuality for guys like Chris Kelsay and Kawika Mitchell, too, neither of whom are what you'd call square pegs for the team's new defensive scheme.It's a good, stoical football decision on the Bills' part. Why reinvest millions in a guy whose tread is wearing down and, to be brutally honest, won't make or break the team's already grim outlook for 2010 and, truth be told, 2011 and perhaps beyond? Schobel's not part of the team's "now," much less its future, and he's much better off signing with an on-the-cusp team in need of a weakside defensive end who can release the hounds on passing downs.
General Manager Buddy Nix made somewhat of a fool of himself when he condescended to media and fans that Schobel was being cut loose because he hadn't put in the time and work other players have in utterly irrevelant OTAs and minicamps, and now five days' worth of training camp. But to be fair, Nix is wise enough to know it's time to dust off some younger guys so he can assess and either keep the kinding or cut out the deadwood. It's tantamount to letting Terrell Owens walk if only to glimpse James Hardy and Stevie Johnson.
That makes the move just as much about Aaron Maybin as it does Schobel. What do the Bills have, exactly, in Maybin? Their organization having used a first-round pick on the Penn State product in 2009, Nix 'n Pals will learn a lot about him in the next six months. Is he the bulldozer who terrorized offenses in the fall of 2008 with the Nittany Lions, or is he the first-year pro of a year ago who never once looked like he belonged on an NFL playing surface?
He's not the biggest guy on the field, but he's strong, quick and aggressive, so he'll be better-suited in the new 3-4 defense (or so we're told). But it's troublesome that Russ Brandon, and to a certain extent Dick Jauron, must've thought he was a ringer for their 4-3 set, yet Maybin's most high-profile moment last season was jumping offside during garbage time in a meaningless November game. For heaven's sake, either a player has football talent or he doesn't. He ought to be able to adapt to whatever defense or flavor of Gatorade you want to use. Maybin's forgettable rookie season didn't exactly inspire coaches, media and fans that we were in the midst of something special. Quite to the contrary, he looked as skittish and confused as an Amish dude riding his buggy through Times Square in the mid-seventies.
You can't accuse Buffalo's braintrust of lacking cajones. They're showing a lot of faith in Maybin by casting away a proven commodity and letting a second-year pro cut his teeth in important games. It might be pie in the sky to expect Maybin to make us forget about Schobel by January, but it's not too much to ask for him to establish himself as an impact player in the coming season.
Schobel's departure gives him an inside track on one of the four coveted linebacker jobs available. He'll fight Kelsay, Mitchell, Paul Poszlusny, Andra Davis and Keith Ellison for them. If he can't nail down one of those spots, it'll be another reminder of the legacy of draft-day failure to which we've all become accustomed since, well, since seemingly forever.
