Everyone giddy about Maybin's giddy-up

Less than 24 hours removed from a fourth-quarter strip sack of Rex Grossman that helped seal the Jets' 34-19 win, Aaron Maybin had a seat in Rex Ryan's office, chatting it up with the coach.

"As much as I've struggled," Maybin said he told Ryan, "and as hard as things have been for me for however long, I'm as happy now as I have been since I started playing this game. It does feel like I'm finally in a situation where I'm able to play football the way I know how to play it, and that's refreshing."

Only four months ago, Maybin was a Bills castoff, waived after getting tagged with the dreaded "B" word. Buffalo decided he was a bust and no longer had a use for the player drafted No. 11 overall in 2009, a guy who hadn't made a single sack in his two seasons.

But the 6-4, 228-pounder's career is finally ascending as a pass-rushing specialist. Despite playing in only nine games -- he sat out the season's first three weeks after the Jets waived him at the end of training camp -- Maybin's six sacks are tops on the Jets. His team-leading four forced fumbles tie him for third in the NFL.

"I never saw myself as the type of player to go through a season and not have any sacks," Maybin, 23, said. "That was never a trait about myself that I embraced. I never accepted that. I knew if given the opportunity, I could produce, and for Rex and them to give me the opportunity, it meant a lot to me.

"I wanted to go in there and produce for them from the first day, and I think that was evident in the way that I came in and practiced and prepared and tried to grasp the defense as fast as possible."

The always chatty Maybin, whose booming voice easily carries across the locker room, is leaving an impression on his teammates.

"He's a fun individual to play with," defensive captain Sione Pouha said. "Maybin is the type of player you look at and say, 'That's a guy who loves to play this game and shares the same excitement as when he first put on the football pads.' The fact that he's here and has been able to make the plays he has made is no surprise.

"I'm sure happy to line up next to him, that's for sure."

Maybin joked that there may be two people who aren't always as giddy to see him: defensive coordinator Mike Pettine and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith.

"They'll tell you I'm probably the most annoying guy on the team to them, because I'm in their office as much as I can be," Maybin said. "I'll go in there, talk to them about the week's game plan, how I fit into it, exactly what it is they're expecting from me."

Maybin's production and growing knowledge of the Jets' complex defensive scheme has earned him more snaps by the week. The Jets are incorporating him more into their game plan, and actually had him rush from the inside at times against the Redskins, hoping to throw them off the scent because he typically had lined up outside.

"Just this week, we really started to notice that teams are starting to key up on where I was going to be," Maybin said. "It was pretty evident by where I was lining up. So when we noticed that, they said they were going to be moving me around a little bit and expanded my role.

"It was a good look for us because it did confuse them from a blocker's perspective."

Almost as dizzying as Maybin's quick voyage in going from being Bills rubbish to Jets gold.

"Honestly," he said, "it's really crazy because I was just talking to my father about it. I really haven't had a chance to sit back and really take it all in yet."

Welcome back, T.J.

The Jets will see an old friend in the Chiefs' backfield Sunday. Thomas Jones, who had three 1,000-plus yard seasons before the Jets released him in 2010, is helping fill the void left by Jamaal Charles' season-ending Achilles injury. But Jones is averaging only 3 yards a carry, gaining 325 yards on 107 attempts, and hasn't scored a TD this season. Jones rushed for 896 and six TDs last season.

A return for Leonhard

Jeremy Kerley's muffed punt Sunday was the Jets' league-high sixth special-teams turnover. It was their fourth straight game with one, and it appears Rex Ryan has had enough. He wants old reliable Jim Leonhard back returning punts. Initially, Ryan was against the idea. "I feel really comfortable having Jim Leonhard back there," he said. "The weather, this time of year, the wind has a tendency to pick up.''

Wild again about Wildcat?

The Jets used the Wildcat formation frequently for the first time all season against the Redskins. They ran seven plays for 27 yards, including Shonn Greene's 9-yard touchdown run. They also used Kerley and LaDainian Tomlinson in the formation. "If you're not really focused on it,'' Ryan said, "I think it's hard to defend. [The Redskins are] really good against the run, but we thought that we could challenge them by putting in some of those things.''