Buffalo Bills — Aaron Maybin (2009):
One of the few blemishes on Penn State’s “Linebacker University” nicknames, even though Aaron Maybin was a finalist for the Bednarik and Hendricks awards after a redshirt sophomore season where he wasn’t even the starter when the season began. Yet, he finished the year as a first-team Big 10 linebacker, with 12 sacks and three sacks. He parlayed that one year of success into the 11th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. In hindsight, that looked to be a pretty smart move, because the more tape that he would’ve had of his college play, the more teams would’ve likely seen the fact that he was a “‘tweener” that was too stiff to play linebacker, and too small to be a traditional defensive end.
He had a great burst off the line, but didn’t have the flexibility or arsenal of moves to succeed as a pass rusher in the NFL. Teammates knew early on that he didn’t have what it would take to succeed in the NFL when he was getting handled by the team’s backups and late-round draft picks. After four seasons in the NFL — three of which he completed without sacking the quarterback a single time — he retired, and became a full time artist; he often partakes of marijuana to help with his “creative energy.”