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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Buffalo Bills transition to a 3-4 defense couldn’t have been better news for pass-rusher Aaron Maybin.



Last year’s 11th overall draft choice struggled through an awful rookie season as a 4-3 defensive end. Maybin’s undetectable performances frustrated a fan base that hoped for an impact player and could rattle off a dozen names the Bills could’ve had instead.



The Bills on Thursday announced they will switch to a 3-4 with new defensive coordinate George Edwards. That would move Maybin to outside linebacker.



Maybin’s mentor, former Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, had an immediate reaction to the news.



“Love it! I love it!” said Arrington, who has been spending time on Radio Row in the Super Bowl media center. “For Aaron, I think it’s the perfect defensive scheme. He’s a bookend. He’s not a true, run-stop defensive end, where you keep him out there, going head-to-head-to-head-to-head with those 300-pound guys every single play.



“You give him more of an opportunity to be successful if you get him in positions where he’s in space, getting the offensive linemen in an uncomfortable situation with having to deal with him in open space.”



Maybin was a middle-schooler in Ellicott City, Md., when he met Arrington at a community event staged by Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Arrington and Maybin hit it off. Their bond became stronger when Maybin decided to attend Penn State, Arrington’s alma mater.



Arrington also knows Edwards well. Edwards was the Redskins’ assistant defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2002 and took over all of the coordinating duties in 2003. Arrington went to the Pro Bowl each of those seasons.



“I think George Edwards being signed is an awesome deal,” Arrington said.



Maybin was overmatched as a rookie. He was a one-year starter at defensive end for Penn State and entered the draft after his junior season. He bulked up once he joined the Bills, but never looked right in his uniform.



Maybin didn’t start a game for a team that went into the season desperate for an improved pass rush. Based on stats calculated by the Bills’ coaching staff, Maybin made 18 tackles, two for losses. He had zero sacks and no forced fumbles.



“The more Aaron Maybin has a chance to develop and mature mentally and physically and emotionally, he’s going to be a special player in this league,” Arrington said. “I just hope that he gets a fair opportunity to get to that point.”



A 3-4 outside linebacker can be sleeker than a 4-3 defensive end. That will allow Maybin to carry a more natural weight on his 6-foot-4 frame and “be himself,” Arrington said. “He doesn’t have to be out of his character for that position.”



Maybin must learn how to work out of a two-point stance and master some basic pass coverages.



“I think he’s athletic enough to adapt and adjust,” Arrington said. “You’ve got to figure that as a bookend he’s going to drop into the hook, into the curl and he may have the flat. They may, once they see how he develops, have him carry routes.



“But for the most part they’re going to have him in certain drop zones anyway. He should be able to adjust to that.”

The pool report for the Colts from Peter King, who’s representing the Pro Football Writers Association this week:

DAVIE, Fla. — Veteran left guard Ryan Lilja missed the second day of the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts’ practice week Thursday with what coach Jim Caldwell called a back injury that he did not think would jeopardize the six-year-veteran’s status for Sunday’s Super Bowl match against the New Orleans Saints.

Lilja

“I suspect he’ll be ready to play,’’ Caldwell said as night fell in south Florida, after the Colts’ two-hour, 15-minute practice that ended under the lights.

The severity of the injury to Lilja, who was one of 20 Colts listed on the injury report, was unclear. Seventeen of those 20 players practiced without restriction Thursday, with only defensive end Dwight Freeney (ankle) and cornerback Jerraud Powers (foot) missing any portion of practice. Both missed the entire workout while receiving treatment inside the Dolphins’ practice facility, Caldwell said.

Asked about the health of Freeney and Powers, Caldwell said: “They’re both improving rapidly.’’ Freeney said earlier in the day he may try to test his grade-three ankle sprain in Friday’s practice or during Saturday’s walkthrough.

Caldwell said this was a typical Colts’ Thursday practice, though almost all of the team’s gameplan was installed last week in Indianapolis. He said the team “wasn’t as sharp as we’d like to be,’’ though you couldn’t tell by the effectiveness of the first-team offense. In four nickel and two-minute offensive sessions in the last hour of practice, Peyton Manning completed 25 of 28 throws against a crew of Colt backups posing at the Saint scout. His last throw in one of the two-minute sessions was a perfectly thrown rollout to Dallas Clark in the end zone. It was the second straight sharp practice for Manning, prepping for his second Super Bowl start in four seasons.

“If you watch us practice,’’ Caldwell said, “the thing you notice with Peyton is the ball is not on the ground very often. The way he threw today was typical Peyton.’’

The highlight for the defense was an interception off scout-team quarterback Curtis Painter by linebacker Clint Session on a deflected pass off the hands of backup receiver Hank Baskett. To the cheers of his defensive mates, Session picked the ball off and ran up the left sideline.

For the second straight day, the Colts seemed loose and businesslike on a perfect day for football — 71 degrees, mostly sunny with a slight wind from the east. Manning finished the last offensive drive of the day as dusk fell on the complex with a short touchdown strike to Clark.

The Colts resume practice Friday at the Dolphins complex at 2:15 p.m., with a final walk-through tuneup here Saturday.

MIAMI — Man, I love Twitter.



I was sitting vacantly in the Super Bowl media center when Minnesota left tackle Bryant McKinnie tweeted that he was walking in the door. I hopped up and ran into him signing posters over on radio row.

McKinnie

We talked for about five minutes about his dismissal from the Pro Bowl, his combination of regret and defiance and his relative lack of sympathy for the players left to cover for him in the game.



Below is most of our Q&A. I’ll follow up with a few comments at the bottom.



Tell us what happened.



Bryant McKinnie: I understand I missed it. But they tried to make it seem like it was because you were at the club and you couldn’t get up. No. I had called [agent Drew Rosenhaus] and told Drew I wanted to withdraw.



I had taken a cortisone shot in my foot the week before the game. When you take that shot, it numbs whatever. You don’t feel like you’re hurt anymore. It was the New Orleans game. You feel like you’re good on Wednesday.



Yes, I did go out. I can go out and still get up the next morning. But my body started feeling a certain way. So I called Drew and I said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to play anymore because my body was hurting.’



I was trying to push myself to play. It was my first Pro Bowl, it was in Miami, so I got to come back and play at home. He got in touch with the trainer. The trainer ended up calling me at 6:30 on Friday.



I told him over the phone my problems. He said, ‘Could you come see me in person?’ I said I was 30 minutes away because I was down at the beach. He said he going to dinner at 7 and could I meet him at 9:30. I said yeah. We were going to meet at 9:30. Then he called me and said, ‘I’m running late. I’m going to give you another time to meet.’



So me, in my mind, I already had talked to him, there’s no need to go to practice. There’s no reason to go to anything else.



What about the other days? Why didn’t you go to practice or meetings on those days?



BM: I had gotten sick. I was in the hotel. So he gave me medicine for that.



The league knew that’s why you didn’t show up?



BM: The trainer came to my room. That was Wednesday.



Given that, do you wish you had done anything differently during the week?



BM: Probably better communication to follow up with trainers and everything, or just withdrew earlier. But I don’t feel like it needed that much attention on it.



Do you think people will be quicker to assume the worst because of your history?



BM: But there wasn’t anything bad behind it. I just feel that they made it more than it really was. It wasn’t like I got locked up somewhere and couldn’t play in the game because I was in jail. That’s how they made it seem. I just didn’t know that it was going to be that serious.



Do you see where people might note that there were only two tackles left after you and that they had to play the entire game?



BM: Anyone who watched the game would know it wasn’t like they were going that hard. If you watched the game, they were stopping in front of the quarterback. I’m like, OK….



Have you heard from Brad Childress yet?



BM: No, not yet. Kevin Warren [a Vikings vice president], I talked to him. He was like, ‘Get off Twitter for a minute.’ Because I was going in there and kind of responding to people. He was like, ‘Just don’t.’



People saw you tweeting about going to clubs and probably made a judgment.



BM: I’m off at the end of the day. I had a long season. It was a pretty decent season. You know what I mean? It’s all alright.



A few thoughts from me:

• I appreciated McKinnie standing there and speaking to me, especially after what I wrote Saturday. (I’m guessing he hasn’t read it.) Nothing he said Thursday will change my original reaction. He would have had to be awfully sick during the week to make only one day of meetings and practices. Neither are taxing. And he absolutely erred by not addressing his foot injury earlier.
• By “they,” I believe McKinnie was referring to the media and not the NFL.
• This question will have to remain unanswered: Why was McKinnie too sick and injured to practice and play, but healthy enough to go out each night in Miami? At the end of the day, those two facts can’t be reconciled. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
• I don’t think many of his fellow Pro Bowlers are going to appreciate McKinnie’s indifference to the players he left to cover for him. I agree the game wasn’t taxing on a relative level, but that’s not the point. The less taxing the game, the more egregious it was that he considered himself too injured to play.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jeff Fisher just shared something I never knew: The Thursday before the Super Bowl, the NFL hosts a dinner for the all-star officiating crew that is assigned to the big game.



Fisher, who interacts with the officiating department often as co-chair of the powerful competition committee, has been here to work for the NFL Network and will be at the dinner Thursday.



It’s the final such evening for the director of officiating, Mike Pereira, who is retiring and will be replaced by Carl Johnson.



“They’ll probably be something special for Mike,” Fisher said. “I think he’s done a tremendous job. I say this over and over. Coaches on Mondays either win or lose games. He loses every Monday, it’d be hard on him, that’s how it is.



“I don’t think people around the league realize how hard he works to try to achieve some consistency and to maintain consistency in the grading system and everything that’s involved in his job. People on the committee happen to have a better understanding because we work with him during the offseason.”



It’s cool that the league does the dinner for the Super Bowl crew.



Here’s the list of those who’ll be featured guests:



Referee Scott Green, umpire Undrey Wash, head linesman John McGrath, line judge Jeff Seeman, field judge Rob Vernatchi, side judge Greg Meyer and back judge Greg Steed. The replay assistant is Jim Lapetina and the video operator is Jim Pearson.

MIAMI — I just touched base with Atlanta general manager Thomas Dimitroff via telephone. We were hoping to meet face to face, but our schedules didn’t work out because he’s up visiting radio row at the media center in Fort Lauderdale and I’m down in Miami with the Saints.



But we talked about the Falcons’ offseason for about 15 minutes. Atlanta has finished reviewing their season and are working on getting ready for free agency now and the draft down the road.



“We were happy that we were 9-7 and had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history,” Dimitroff said. “But we’re definitely not happy that we were not in the playoffs. We realize we have to eliminate some inconsistencies on offense and defense. We’ve got lots of work to do there. (Coach Mike Smith) has talked about being significant and relevant and that’s our goal to be in the playoffs so that we are significant and relevant every year.’’



Dimitroff isn’t about to reveal any top-secret plans for free agency, as he and Smith always believed in building primarily through the draft. But they have sprinkled in a few big-name free agents (see Michael Turner and Tony Gonzalez) in each of their previous two offseasons.



“We’re always about continuing to get better at all positions so we will consider every way that might make our team better,” Dimitroff said. “First and foremost, we’re going to be very fiscally responsible. That doesn’t mean we won’t be active. If we think a player in free agency can really ratchet us to another level, we’ll contemplate it. If we see a player that is a fit like Tony Gonzalez was, then I’ll go to (owner) Arthur Blank and tell him that we want to pursue this guy.”



Dimitroff can’t comment on players on other teams before they become free agents and he’s not going to tip his hand about what positions the Falcons may be looking at. But based on last season, there already has been plenty of speculation that Atlanta may try to bolster the pass rush and the secondary.



There already has been speculation that Atlanta could be a possible landing spot for Carolina’s Julius Peppers, if he does indeed become a free agent. Don’t rule that out, but also remember Dimitroff’s words about being “fiscally responsible.” Peppers is going to command a huge salary if he hits the open market and he’s not getting any younger.



Dimitroff did say the Falcons will continue to try to build mostly through the draft.



“What I can tell you is that the draft will continued to be need based for us,” Dimitroff said. “And I can tell you it won’t be as lopsided as it was last year when we only took one offensive player or the year before when we kind of focused on offense.”



Dimitroff also said that injured players Harry Douglas, Brian Williams, Peria Jerry and William Moore are all progressing well in rehabilitation.



“They’re all at various stages in their rehab, but everyone’s on target,” Dimitroff said. “There are no concerns as far as any of them being ready for next season.”

MIAMI — How far have the New Orleans Saints come as an organization?



From their first season in 1967 to the paper-sack-wearing Aints days, the franchise has endured a lot to win their first NFC championship and finally reach the Super Bowl.



“It didn’t take us but 43 years to figure it out,” said Archie Manning, a local icon who quarterbacked the Aints and still resides in New Orleans.



To get an idea of how much pride Saints alumni are feeling in the days leading up to Super Bowl XLIV, I asked Danny Abramowicz, Conrad Dobler, Henry Childs, Bobby Hebert and Manning to share their memories of some not-so-pleasant days.



Abramowicz (an original Saint — drafted in the 17th round — and Pro Bowl receiver and later a Saints broadcaster): “I can remember running out on the field the first day, opening game at Tulane Stadium in front of 85,000 people. We ran the kickoff back for a touchdown, and it went downhill.”



Hebert (a Baton Rouge, La., native and Saints quarterback from 1985 through 1992): “It was always ‘Wait ’til next year.’ They didn’t have a winning record their first 20 years.”



Abramowicz: “We were involved with one of the biggest fights of all-time [Oct. 8, 1967 against the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium]. All the fans were pouring out onto the field. We had a guy on our team named Doug Atkins, who really was a freak of size. The last pass to me in the game against the Giants was a Hail Mary-type thing, and it was incomplete. I look up the field, and they had Doug pinned down and were beating him with helmets.



“I thought ‘Well, I better get out of there.’



“In Yankee Stadium, you had to go through dugouts. I looked back one last time to see what was going on and missed the top step. My head hit the top of the dugout. I had to go back to the locker room and sit down in a chair. Guys were coming in with their shirts torn, and they were bleeding. A lot of silly stuff happened in those times.”



Manning: “You never get used to losing. The Saints can tell you, the Colts can tell you, when you win those games, the next Sunday comes around too quick. It’s such a great feeling. The atmosphere is so good. But when you lose, that next Sunday almost won’t get there.”



Abramowicz: “People came to our games for the halftime shows. We had Al Hirt, Pete Fountain. There were some great times, but an awful lot of bad times, a lot of butt whippings.”



Abramowicz: “The lowest time in the franchise for me was in 1973. We opened the season, and everyone’s fired up. Everyone thinks we’re going to the Super Bowl on opening day. If you don’t feel that way, then get the hell out of the game.



“We opened against the Atlanta Falcons, and that was our big rivalry at the time. They beat us that opening game, 62-7, just whipping the you-know-what out of us. This wasn’t the Dallas Cowboys. This was the Atlanta Falcons. That was, in my time, the lowest.”

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — One of the most famous scouting reports in the history of the Dallas Cowboys organization went missing several years ago, but there are eyewitnesses who remember the final line. It was written by former Cowboys southeast area scout Walt Yaworsky, a man who played center for Bear Bryant at Kentucky before a career in the pros.



“Emmitt Smith will someday make Cowboys fans forget about Tony Dorsett,” read the final line of Yaworsky’s report, according to a couple scouts who asked not to be identified in this story.



The statement sounds plausible in the aftermath of Smith’s illustrious career, but it raised eyebrows at Valley Ranch in 1990. Yaworsky, not a man to mince words, was prepared to stake his reputation to the 5-9, 210-pound running back out of Florida. Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson, a man highly regarded for recognizing talent, made it no secret that he hoped to draft Baylor linebacker James Francis. Johnson was reportedly prepared to move all the way up from No. 21 to No. 13 to select Francis, but the Bengals foiled his plans by picking him at No. 12.



The Cowboys eventually moved up to No. 17 and considered a group of players that included Rodney Hampton, Steve Broussard, Darrell Thompson and Smith. Yaworsky, who was also instrumental in scouting Michael Irvin, was adamant that Smith was the right player to replace Herschel Walker, who had been traded to the Vikings six months earlier. Described by those who knew him best as an “Archie Bunker type personality,” Yaworsky said to hell with 40-yard dash times and informed Johnson and Jerry Jones that Smith had the best vision of any running back he’d ever scouted.



I finally tracked down Yaworsky in Cleveland, Tenn., on Wednesday. He was very modest about his role in the process and kept deferring to “the talented coaches from Miami” in reference to Johnson and his staff.



“He was unique because he wasn’t real tall,” Yaworsky finally said after some coaxing. “I thought he was in Jimmy Brown’s class from the start. He just had this peripheral vision and he seemed to know exactly where his linemen were going to be without ever having to take a peek.”



Yaworsky thought Smith was the perfect type of back because most of his weight was in the lower body and he did a superb job of keeping his pad level low. Smith had an uncanny knack for making his body go limp at the moment of impact so that he never took a lot of clean shots. Old-school scouts such as Yaworsky knew that 40-yard dash times, while instructive, shouldn’t define players.



Smith never ran better than a 4.5 40-yard dash, but it was his ability to change direction on a dime without losing speed that made him so special. Football isn’t played on a straight line and that’s why it’s not a given that a 4.3 40-yard dash will translate to great rushing numbers.



I’m not even sure if Smith himself knows how much Yaworsky fought for him leading up to the draft. Time has a way of obscuring the facts and that’s why you’ll hear other scouts’ names come up in relation to Smith. But the guys who looked at that old report know the truth. On Saturday here in Fort Lauderdale, it’s pretty much a given that Smith will be voted into the Hall of Fame. He and Jerry Rice are virtual locks.



Before I hung up the phone Wednesday, I asked Yaworsky if he ever wondered what happened to that report. Maybe it might be worth something.



“Oh I cleaned out the garage a while back,” he said. “So that probably rules out any hope of it surfacing.”

Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey has made the most important hire on his coaching staff.



The Bills on Thursday announced NFL veteran George Edwards will be the defensive coordinator. The opening was the most significant because Gailey will handle play-calling duties.



“Defensively, we will start from a 3-4 alignment,” said Edwards, according to the team’s Web site. Edwards ran a 4-3 when he was Steve Spurrier’s defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins in 2003, but has spent the past two seasons coaching inside linebackers for the Miami Dolphins, learning from one of the biggest 3-4 advocates in Bill Parcells.



Edwards accepted the job three weeks after he was named defensive coordinator at the University of Florida.



“I’m thrilled to be joining the UF coaching staff,” Edwards said at the time. “I started my career at the college level at Florida and I enjoy teaching and molding young men. I am looking forward to working with a great group of people at Florida and a great group of players.”



Before his three-week stay with the Gators, Edwards spent five seasons with the Dolphins as a linebackers coach. He was hired by Nick Saban and remained on staff under Cam Cameron and Tony Sparano.