Every professional sports franchise has made personnel decisions they regret down the road. The New York Mets famously traded away a young Nolan Ryan and the Nets let Julius Erving slip through their hands.
In the NFL, the story is the same, as illustrated in a recent article by Bleacher Report’s Brett Sobleski, who created a list of players teams gave up on too soon.
For the New York Giants, it was Hall of Fame wide receiver Don Maynard, who was selected int he ninth round of the draft out of Texas Western. by the Giants in 1957.
Maynard played one season for the Giants in 1958, catching five passes for 84 yards and rushing four times for 45 yards in 13 games. He was realized by the Giants during their 1959 training camp, which was held at St. Michael’s College in Vermont back then. It was a decision the Giants would come to regret as Maynard returned two years later as a member of the newly-formed New York Titans of the AFL.
“This isn’t a typical start to a Hall of Fame career. Yet that’s exactly the path Don Maynard took,” writes Sobleski. “He eventually found success in the Big Apple as Joe Namath’s favorite target during the Jets’ glory years.
“To this day, Maynard remains the Jets’ all-time leader in receptions (627), receiving yards (11,732) and receiving touchdowns (88). Think about those numbers for a moment. Maynard hasn’t played for the Jets since the ’72 campaign. The NFL is more pass-happy than ever. No other Jets receiver comes within 3,400 yards of Maynard’s franchise record.”
To be fair, the Giants were an NFL powerhouse from 1956-63 and were in the middle of their golden era. They were comfortable with their backfield trio of Frank Gifford, Alex Webster and Mel Triplett. They also had Kyle Rote and Bob Schnelker as their main receivers. There wasn’t really room fro the young Maynard.
Maynard did not really distinguish himself with the club, but he never got the benefit of playing with Y.A. Tittle, either. The AFL sported a wide open offense style that featured the vertical pass. Maynard was deep threat and the Giants just weren’t a deep-throwing team behind 38 year-old quarterback Charley Conerly. It wasn’t until they traded for Y.A. Tittle the next season, that the passing game took off. It would have been interesting to see how Maynard would have fit in there.
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