Teams: Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Houston Texans. There is one football player who could score from literally anywhere, and his name is 2. Bowman doesn't get the recognition he's due, and he may have to get used to it. Hadl played quarterback, halfback, defensive back and punter for the University of Kansas. The Packers were a team with more history than identity when Butler arrived. But there is no player; fans themselves get to "leap" into the statue for photo ops. An all-underrated team like this one can get flooded with Zach Thomas, Hardy Nickerson, Tommy Nobis and Tedy Bruschi types if we don't get a little choosy. Victory propelled Montana to superstardom, while defeat left the 32-year old Anderson to play out the string as a high-percentage passer for a rapidly disintegrating franchise. Old-timers call it the Lawrence Welk trade after a television bandleader of the era who would begin songs by counting off "A one, and a two, and a three". As the Chargers faded, Rivers kept them in the wild-card picture and became the franchise's only recognizable public figure. Ken Griffey Jr.? But here's the thing: Gradishar, Mecklenberg and Atwater are famous for being snubbed. Randy Gradishar. And he played in one stinking Pro Bowl game. In both New England and Arizona, Jones has wreaked havoc on quarterbacks, demonstrating versatility as a 3-4 OLB and 4-3 DE. But what peak years they were: 14- and 13-win seasons, annual playoff appearances, routine 4,000-yard, 30-touchdown seasons. We look at the 10 most underrated players in football at the moment. Deion Jones is one interception away from tying the all-time record for pick 6's by a linebacker, and he's done it in a fraction of the games. He was a six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro. And let's not place the full burden of history on his shoulders, as Marty Schottenheimer, Norv Turner, the Chargers front office and Rivers himself had a hand in making the team a playoff also-ran during those peak years. That voter meant every fanbase has a beloved old defender, renowned for his toughness and leadership, that they swear belongs in the Hall of Fame. It takes more than mere greatness to be considered one of the most underrated players in pro football history. Most Underrated NFL Players Of All Time - The Onion Both Courtland Sutton and teammate Tim Patrick could easily make this list together as neither player is discussed nearly enough. If John Hadl is remembered for anything these days, it's for one of the most disastrous trades in NFL history. But his Hall of Fame candidacy has been stuck in semifinalist limbo. To understand why he is not in the Hall of Fame, you must familiarize yourself with both the era he played in and the vagaries of Hall voting. Overall, the total still ranks ninth at the position. With his career spread evenly across three teams and zero All-Pro selections (a consequence of playing in the same era as Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher), Fletcher is a Hall of Fame long shot. Mills looks like just another local hero linebacker in the encyclopedias, albeit a good one. He played in the run-'n'-shoot offense, which means he was on an island against the NFL's best pass-rushers on every snap for a half-decadeno tight end flanking him, no blocking back behind him. Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, Super Bowl championships: Two (1979, 1990). Start with Adam Timmerman, who won Super Bowl rings with the Packers and Rams three years apart. But don't write him off as some 1960s product of the system. Ground rules: A max of three Pro Bowl invitations. He picked off a dozen passes in his career two of them at 38 years of age an absurd number for a 6-foot-4, 265-pound lineman. Jones topped the 100 career sack total in week one of 2021, a five-sack day that tied a Cardinals franchise record and set a personal career-best. Measurables. Efficient? Off to a fast start in 2021, Sutton is quickly reminding opposing defenses of his talent. Evans, the best pass-protecting guard of his era, was charged with making sure pass-rushers didn't get close enough to Brees to bat his passes down, let alone sack him. Bottom line: For 16 seasons, Henry Ellard wreaked havoc as a pass receiver and punt returner. One of the greatest defenders in the history of a storied franchise, Young is just another victim of bad timing when it comes to getting the reputation he deserves. Super Bowl championships: Two (2005, 2008). 10. WebThe 10 most underrated football players of all time are: Gheorghe Hagi, Michael Laudrup, Gaetano Scirea, Hristo Stoichkov, Matthias Sammer, Davor Suker, Gunter Netzer, Most Underrated His stardom was spread among three teams, robbing him of local hero status (or Hall of Fame momentum) in any one city. Most Underrated He played for teams that were more interesting than outstanding, from the Ryan and Rich Kotite-era Eagles to the Jim Mora and Mike Ditka Saints to Jon Gruden's Raiders. Jerry Rice and John Taylor may have been the greatest receiving tandem of that era, but Ellard and Flipper Anderson were the most explosive pair of deep threats. 1. Anderson is no Hall of Famerthe middle of his career is a morass of ordinary-at-best seasonsbut he was a pioneer and an innovator. The Rams eventually acquired Jim Everett and opened up their offense, transforming Ellard into one of the NFL's most dangerous deep threats. Jackson finished his career with 11,438 rushing yards (18th all-time) and 15,121 total scrimmage yards (21st all-time). In addition to the most underrated and overrated Raiders of all time, Adam Rank goes on a mini-tirade about a criminally underrated coach. While under the radar, Bates has emerged as one of the better all-around safeties in football. Theyre the core players who are overshadowed by more well-paid, high-profile teammates and just plain pathetic, shameless self-promoters. He then went on to start at left tackle for the playoff-bound Cardinals and 2000 NFC champion Giants. With Warfield hurt nearly all of that season, Ryan helped make a Pro Bowler out of receiver/punter Gary Collins. Players like McDole are what all-time underrated lists exist for. Bottom line: Warrick Dunn overcame the murder of his mother, bouts with depression and 5-foot-9 size to have a successful 12-year NFL career. Anderson was the first quarterback to successfully orchestrate the beta version of Bill Walsh's West Coast offense for multiple seasons. If you guessed both or neither one, youre wrong. But few cornerbacks spent more of their careers in the crosshairs than Allen. Full name: Jordi Alba Ramos Date of birth: March 21, 1989 Age: 33 years old (as of 2023) Place of birth: L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain Height: 1.70 m Current team: This list begins with a quarterback who is preparing to play in the 2015 NFL regular season. More than anything, though, Rote was a leader and winner. Mills was a USFL All-Star in all three seasons of the league's existence, and he led the Philadelphia and Baltimore Stars' Doghouse Defense (coached by Jim Mora) to a pair of league titles. Oakland Raiders. Why retain an expensive vestige of the last regime, or really the last three regimes? Without Kenn, there might not be free agency in the NFL, to say nothing of limitations on practice conditions and other initiatives that make pro football less dangerous than it was decades ago. WebTop ten under-capped England players is a list Foden and Maddison want to avoid Matt Le Tissier won 10 fewer England caps than Carlton Palmer. Bottom line: All Ken Norton could do was take down ballcarriers and collect Super Bowl rings. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. They lost to the Vikings 30-14 in the 1974 Wildcard Round, and they were defeated by the Rams 35-23 in the opening round of the playoffs in 1975. Beachum has lined up at both left and right tackle but displayed Rivers had neither, but he possessed just about everything else. Along with Devin White, David was all over the field making plays around the ball and was one of the more valuable players in shutting down the Chiefs offense in the Super Bowl. In two Super Bowl trips, Bahr didnt miss a kick three field goals, six PATs. Interior defensive linemen: The average height and weight for defensive tackles entering the league is 6-foot-3, 306 pounds. So LeRoy Butler, innovator of the Lambeau Leap, is excluded from his own statue. Anchoring defenses with catchy names like the "Orange Crush?" Wouldnt you know it? Dont know about you, but I want Mason on my retro fantasy league team. He also had some of the clutch gene. Finally, at last, the cornerback was selected to play in his first Pro Bowl game as some kind of lifetime achievement award. One of the most well-traveled quarterbacks in NFL history, Vinny Testaverde hung around long enough to register the seventh-most passing yards ever in his 20-year career. Today we look back at the most underrated Quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, and a few of these should be in Canton. Membership on various All-1960s teams. On this All-Underrated list, he is in very good company. Pittsburgh Steelers: All-time underrated, overrated players - NFL.com Jerry Hughes has been a consistent pass rusher and important piece to the Buffalo Bills defense. Hes on the short list of running back leaders in yards per rush (4.6, 17th), touches (2,824, 25th) and yards from scrimmage (14,079, 35th) in NFL history. He played 256 career regular-season games, never missing a start due to injury. But this list is all about giving overlooked players their due respect. Despite his incredibly high waist seriously, check out his build Kelvin Beachum has been one of the most underrated tackles in the NFL. He is also infamous for admitting on ESPN Radio that he once purposely let Packers defender Sean Jones sack Scott Mitchell so the struggling quarterback would get knocked out of a game. Bottom line: The 1970s Steelers won four Super Bowls two with a power run game, two with a potent pass attack and who better than Jon Kolb to do the heavy lifting? WebWho are the most underrated players of all time? Teams kept doing something special to get their hands on Hadl. Bottom line: OK, kids, lets play Name That Hall of Famer. They would rank first in the NFL in yardage four other times while Evans was a starter. But the run-'n'-shoot took away more than it provided, and the early 1990s Lions kept getting obliterated by better defenses in the playoffs. "Even now I still get pissed off. This past offseason, Juszczyk signed a five-year $27M contract to return to the 49ers, making him the highest-paid fullback in football by a wide margin. His 2,690 all-purpose yards with the Titans in the 2000 season are second in league history. On a walk-through between center and left guard, naturally. Smith wasnt a no-show on third-and-long, either. Related:Most Overrated NFL Players of All Time. WebThe Top 10 Most Underrated Football Players of All Time 1. Its a frigging joke that Taylor isnt in the Hall of Fame discussion. Coaches rave about his work off the field and his dedication to improving his craft. Johnson can line up all over the field and consistently find space in the opposing defense. FanDuel NFL 2021: Best lineup for Week 16, Jets HC Robert Saleh tests positive for COVID, could miss Jaguars game, LeVeon Bell fires back on Twitter at fans trolling him for signing with Buccaneers. In his most prolific early season, he caught 54 passes for 811 yards and five touchdowns. He should be remembered as more than a throwback to the era when Lawrence Welk references were topical. He had the speed to get to the edge and beat defenders down the sideline, the power to plow through tackles, the elusiveness to make things happen in the open field and receiving chops to rival contemporaries Roger Craig or Thurman Thomas. Playing in Detroit can stifle any career. And Jackson spent a generation as a pre- and postgame show staple, which puts him in a whole different category. He became an All-Pro playing blindside protector in an early 1990s run-'n'-shoot offense. "No one was going to catch no ball.". He also scored 35 touchdowns on the ground in that span. He headed to Washington and moved from the weak to strong side. Roberston is the guy getting head-butted in the sternum and knocked backward by Campbell before the running back's jersey gets torn off. Lomas Brown played left tackle for four Lions playoff teams. He led the Bengals to a pair of playoff appearances in 1973 and 1975, Joe Montana's high school senior and Notre Dame sophomore seasons. Super Bowl championships: 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979. That's not something to hold against a player. Yet somehow, some way, Kolb never received a Pro Bowl invitation. A Colts defender delivered some payback in the all-star game. ", Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins, Pro Bowl appearances (AFL All-Star Game): Two (1965, 1967). But Brown was a unique and underappreciated player for over a decade on a team that nearly revolutionized the way football is played. The NFL is now full of receivers like Mason, but few of them are as productive as he was for over a decade. For a few years, he was not only the best guard in the NFL, but the most important. MVP-caliber seasons (1,528 yards, 90 receptions, 16 total touchdowns in 2006) early in his career gave way to annual 1,100-1,200 yard, low-touchdown grinds as the Greatest Show Rams retired one by one and the team fell to 2-14 and 1-15. Most underrated NFL players on all During his first four seasons, three with the Ravens and one in Oakland, Waller caught just 18 passes on 29 targets while also being suspended all of 2017. It made the Bills of the early 1990s the greatest team to never win a Super Bowl. Kolb set the Super Bowl standard for left tackles in Super Bowl IV, when he smoked undersized Minnesota Vikings end Jim Marshall like a bad cigar. WebLet's face it: An entire All-Underrated Team can be assembled using only Broncos defenders. Guards don't make the Hall of Fame unless they win multiple Super Bowls or play forever. Sanders was an extremely Maybe there is still an NFL team in San Diego. Butler has never even been a Hall of Fame semifinalist, and it's not going to happen for him soon. He started for an offensive line that helped Barry Sanders win two of his four rushing titles. The top 20 most under-rated footballers of all time - The Telegraph A lifelong Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Davids 10-year career has been about consistency and productivity. 100-91). Success came early for Fletcher, recognition late. Steve Atwater. So Kenn basically had three careers. He announced his retirement from pro football in 2010, not long after signing with the Arizona Cardinals. By being overshadowed by Brown, achieving his greatest success just before the dawn of the Super Bowl era and getting stuck behind the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning of your grandfather's generation, Ryan earned the title of the NFL's All-Time Most Underrated Player. Travis Kelce and George Kittle dominate the conversation at tight end but Darren Waller is quickly emerging as a name that should be discussed as well. But run defense was king in the era when McDole played, and his 16-year career is littered with big plays: 12 interceptions, 14 fumble recoveries, two touchdowns, three safeties and a pair of sacks in the 1966 AFL Championship Game.
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