Since he’s entered the National Football League, Aaron Maybin has been an easy target.  Unfair as it may be that he’s so harshly judged less than a game into his second NFL regular season, Maybin could be the poster child for all the erroneous moves the Buffalo Bills front office has made this decade.

There’s no easy way to say it—the organization has been mostly a league bottom-feeder for several years running, and while the reasons have mounted, none are greater than their inability to find impact players at the top of the draft.  Time and time again Tom Donahoe, Marv Levy, Tom Modrak and Dick Jauron used their powers and influences to get the players they wanted early– and without recent exception the moves have backfired.

Since 2002 with the fourth overall selection of Mike Williams, the Bills first round picks almost read like an encyclopedia of exactly what NOT to do when building a winning football team.  Williams was a calamity and J.P. Losman (2004) was even worse due to Donahoe trading up into the first round to get him.  Donte Whitner went in the top 10 in 2006 yet has barely been better than backups George Wilson or Bryan Scott.  Marshawn Lynch (2007) will be the team’s third running back in the rotation on opening day in a few weeks, provided Fred Jackson’s hand is recovered enough to play.  Leodis McKelvin (2008) showed great promise as a rookie, but missed most of last year with a leg injury and has yet to return to form this preseason, though signs are pointing the way of improvement.  He’s in a battle with Drayton Florence for the right to start alongside Terrence McGee.

But perhaps all of these picks pale in comparison to that invested in Maybin by Jauron and Modrak last season.  Williams and Losman may have been complete debacles, but at least both got the opportunity to become a draft day bust.  Maybin, despite being selected 11^th overall last season by a team with more needs at the time than they’d care to count; rarely got to see the field last season.  He turned in a remarkably unremarkable 18 tackles without a sack in 16 games of ultra-limited action.

Maybin apparently caught a huge break when Chan Gailey was named head coach after last season.  Gailey soon hired George Edwards as the defensive coordinator and it became known the Bills were switching to a 3-4; a scheme that apparently fits Maybin’s talents much more than the traditional 4-3.  But since the start of training camp Maybin had failed to make an impression.  In fact, the only thing inspirational about him through the most the summer has been the twitter messages he frequently sends out to his followers.

Confirmation of a lack of confidence in him by his own staff has been indisputable.  Reggie Torbor was waived by Miami but good enough to come to Buffalo and come in and start over him.  Then Torbor went down with an injury, and into the preseason starting lineup stepped— Chris Ellis, who’s never played a down of linebacker in the NFL.  In fact, undrafted free agent linebacker Antonio Coleman has been seeing as many snaps as Maybin, mind boggling when you consider how much work the former Penn State star still needs.

Disappointment with Maybin this summer extended past just the fans and ventured into teammates.  During a heated practice July 29 which saw Maybin push running back Fred Jackson to the ground from behind, starting right guard and fellow 2009 first rounder Eric Wood took up for his fallen offensive teammate, telling Maybin in no uncertain terms to “Give back some of that money you ain’t [expletive] earned!”

While Maybin isn’t going anywhere (the team is certainly not going to cut ties with a top 12 pick just one season into his career), he’s been tucked away on the depth chart, if not completely buried. Those who came into 2010 expecting a breakout season for No. 58, including the author of this column, have been in for a rude surprise.

However, those clinging to a glimmer of hope that Maybin may become an impact player much sooner than later must have been delighted with the outcome of the Bills’ tilt against the Bengals this past Saturday.

Maybin of course, didn’t start the game, but once he got regular reps late in the second quarter he made the most of them.  Just before halftime Maybin flushed Bengals backup quarterback J.T. Sullivan into an intentional grounding penalty.  Later, in the final quarter herecorded a pair of sacks on Jordan Palmer.  The second one in particular was spectacular, completely blowing past left tackle Gabriel Manns to drop Palmer and earn an rousing ovation from a crowd that’s been waiting a long time to have the grounds to cheer for him.

Granted, Manns is hardly Andrew Whitworth and Jordan bears little resemblance in skill compared to big brother Carson Palmer, but for the time being Maybin has no control of when and who he’s lining up against; so the only thing he can take command of is what he does with his snaps.

On this night, he was tremendously impressive.

It remains to be seen whether Maybin will continue the momentum gathered on Saturday, or if he simply took advantage of inferior opposition.  But hey—at least he finally took advantage of something, and that’s a start.

The road towards Maybin’s prominence in this league remains long and winded.  He won’t begin the season as an every down defender.  Torbor when healthy will get the bulk of the snaps when the defense is expecting the run.  Maybin may be making strides in his pass rushing abilities but has miles to go when it comes to hitting running backs and fighting off monster tackles.  There’s not another viable explanation why Ellis and Coleman are getting more reps in downs not of the obvious passing variety other than Maybin being weak against the rush.

But if he’s able to duplicate his performance against the Bengals when the Bills finish the preseason at Detroit this Thursday, he’ll go a long way towards earning more trust from his coaches when games begin to count on September 12.