WebWhile every fan base is sure to have two or three names they feel are undervalued and worthy of this list, here are my current top ten underrated players in the NFL. He's the Rams' all-time leading rusher with almost 3,000 more yards for the franchise than Marshall Faulk or Eric Dickerson. Make no mistake about it, Eric Bieniemys exodus from Kansas City to Washington is only one move on the chess board Bowman is coming off an Achilles tear in 2016. Playing in Detroit can stifle any career. Even unspectacular ones manage to rack up a few 1,000-yard seasons and get drafted early in fantasy leagues. The linebacker ranks 17th in career solo tackles (1,130) and is the only player to be part of three consecutive Super Bowl champions. New England Patriots wide receiver Stanley Morgan, right, battles for "That was my territory," Edwards recalled in The Palm Beach Post. 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. WebTop 20 Most Underrated NFL Players of All Time 20 Drew Brees. If Morgan had played in a pass-happy offense with a Pro Bowl quarterback and hands-off rules, you would find him in Canton right now. Kenn is one of the NFL's all-time great players and leaders, and his impact ranges far beyond his playing career. He rose to Pro Bowl status playing left tackle for a single-back, Joe Gibbs-style 1980s offense. The least glamorous position on the field, a so-so team, a franchise moveWisniewski pulled three lemons on the recognition slot machine. He covered receivers (38 career interceptions). Some of the 19 He then led three fourth-quarter comebacks to bring them back to the playoffs in 1965. 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. Fleming was a reliable backup tight end/wide receiver who played with four Super Bowl-winners (and one NFL champion) in a dozen seasons. A new generation of superstar left tackles entered the league as Brown was peaking, and he spent the latter half of his career bouncing from team to team as Tony Boselli, Willie Roaf, Orlando Pace, Jonathan Ogden and Walter Jones turned the blindside protector into an almost glamorous position. But Brown was a unique and underappreciated player for over a decade on a team that nearly revolutionized the way football is played. Player B was a one-time MVP who played in two Pro Bowl games. Some might say it's a stretch to put Allen on this list after four straight Pro Bowl seasons and 95+ catch seasons. As a 31-year-old, no less. That's where the politics of Hall voting come in. WebDuring the next few weeks, we here at NFL.com will unveil our Most Underrated and Overrated Players of All Time for all 32 teams and allow users to determine their He once sacked Dan Marino twice on the first two plays of a gamea remarkable achievement, as Marino was one of the least sacked quarterbacks in NFL history. He also doesn't play in the shadow of a legend. Coaches rave about his work off the field and his dedication to improving his craft. But no one remembers the Greatest Show on Turf for its defense, and Fletcher spent the prime of his career playing for mediocre Bills teams. Shenault is dynamic after the catch and plays like a running back with the ball in his hands. #5. When London Fletcher retired after the 2014 season, Robert Klemko of The MMQBasked him if he was motivated by feeling underappreciated for most of his career. Both Courtland Sutton and teammate Tim Patrick could easily make this list together as neither player is discussed nearly enough. Bowman makes this list because he has the makings of a player who will be underappreciated historically. But a double whammyplaying center and playing for the Broncoshas kept him miles from Hall of Fame consideration. Bowman doesn't get the recognition he's due, and he may have to get used to it. 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. It takes years of playing the wrong position for the wrong team in the wrong league at the wrong time. But his Hall of Fame candidacy has been stuck in semifinalist limbo. As the Chargers faded, Rivers kept them in the wild-card picture and became the franchise's only recognizable public figure. Nope, not Charles Haley. 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. It doesn't matter: If you are a Broncos defender, you might as well forget about a bust in Canton. Karl Mecklenburg. But the former NFL Man of the Year award winner and two-time All-Pro should not have had to wait so long. Allen has much in common with many others on this underrated list. Those accomplishments may soon finally land Kenn in the Hall of Fame. His .588 win percentage ranks second to Wilson in team history. Meet every NFL team's all-time most underrated player. It was the era of great defensive lines with catchy namesthe Rams had the Fearsome Foursome, the Cowboys the Doomsday Defense, the Steelers later added the Steel Curtain, and so forthand Marshall was the Ringo Starr of the Purple People Eaters, the guy who once ran the wrong way for a touchdown and was happy just to be in the band. Fred Warner gets a lot of attention at linebacker for the 49ers, but Dre Greenlaw flies under theradar as a young playmaker quickly on the rise. Wisniewski reached eight Pro Bowls and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade team for the 1990s, so he's not exactly obscure. Year after year, Chandler Jones is one of the best pure pass rushers in football. 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. With 4.35 speed, McLaurin can take the top off any defense but has also rounded out the rest of his game since his time at Ohio State. Perhaps Hull would be in the Hall of Fame if the Bills had won even one Super Bowl. In the 1950s and the days of 12-game regular seasons, he rushed for 3,078 yards, nearly 1,000 more than the runner-up. TGT Tips! Jackson finished his career with 11,438 rushing yards (18th all-time) and 15,121 total scrimmage yards (21st all-time). Bottom line: Never mind guys such as Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson. When the team inducted Smith into the Pride of the Jaguars ring of honor last year, it was the strange case of a moribund franchise honoring a former receiver still on parole for succumbing to the demons of addiction. The system helped make Hall of Famers of Kelly, Reed and Thomas. Brown earned seven Pro Bowl berths and an All-Pro selection. Put him on the Tom Brady-led Patriots, and Mason might have invented a new branch of mathematics. After spending a season on the practice squad and injured-reserve with the Jets, Franklin-Myers made the most of his opportunities as a rotational player throughout most of 2020, leading to a starting role in 2021 and a massive $55M extension. Dunn finished his career with 15,655 all-purpose yards, 25th in league history, one of the best players never to be a champion. Marshall reached just two Pro Bowls. WebWho are the most underrated players of all time? They were the Yale football of the NFL, their glory years moldering in history books. Mills followed Mora to New Orleans and led the Dome Patrol linebacking corps, which brought the Saints franchise its first playoff appearances. And almost nobody remembers that, when Edwards caught the ball, he knew what to do it. NaVorro Bowman trade rumors surfaced in early spring, only to be quickly squelched by new 49ers general manager John Lynch. The Packers believed they were a veteran quarterback away from a playoff run in 1974, so head coach/GM Dan Devine acquired the 34-year-old Rams quarterback by surrendering a ransom of draft picks huge enough to cause even Ryan Pace to do a spit take: two first-rounders, two second-rounders and a third-rounder. Web#shortsucl#bayernmunich #bayern #barcelona#football#footballedit#footballedits#footballshirts#soccer#socceredit#socceredits#soccershorts They never had any playoff success, even when they did make it into the postseason. ", Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins, Pro Bowl appearances (AFL All-Star Game): Two (1965, 1967). While Graham's sack numbers have never hit double digits, he remains a complete player and Super Bowl champion. Young was a devastating interior pass-rusher who recorded 30 sacks in the three-year span from 1998 through 2000. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports By Sam Monson May 13, Not only was Fleming good enough to stick with great teams, but he also was the luckiest son of a gun on the face of the earth. These men did so much but received so little credit in return. DeForest Buckner plays great team defense and has done so successfully for two franchises. Is Jalen Hurts the Future of the Philadelphia Eagles? No matter what the two-time All-Pro accomplished, he could never be Jerry Rice, who cast a long, tall shadow in the same conference. The NFL is now full of receivers like Mason, but few of them are as productive as he was for over a decade. "It was tough, but I was happy for those guys," Dunn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They're the working stiffs who bust their butts at so-called lesser positions, on teams that are seldom seen on highlights shows, let alone national television. Super Bowl championships: Four (1981, 1984, 1988, 1989). Norton made the key play of the game in the second period, when he stood up Buffalo Bills back Kenneth Davis mere inches from the goal line. So Anderson cranked out a few 1,000-yard seasons and played in some Pro Bowls, and that was that. By the time Rivers is retired for five years, the "San Diego Chargers" will be as relevant as the Dayton Triangles, and Hall voters will be too busy rubber-stamping Tom Brady and Drew Brees to get to a guy from a lost city who couldn't win the big one. Anderson became a footnote to the Ditka era, but fans who saw him play know he was far more than that. He started for the Rams in their Super Bowl seasons at the beginning of his career and then earned Pro Bowl berths for Washington from 2009 through 2012 when he was in his mid-30s. Numbers better than majority of RBs in history. Yet he still led his team to the playoffs three more times. He ran a Sonny Jurgensen pass back 59 yards in the fourth quarter to seal a Rams playoff win over the Redskins in 1974. WebWhile positional drills may be more indicative of a player's success in the NFL, other events like the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill and bench press are less obvious. Let's take a look at the the five most underrated footballers of all time. He also had some of the clutch gene. The Over-the-Hill Gang fielded one of the most ferocious pass rushes of its era, notching 53 sacks in 1973. Nothing screams underappreciated like rumors you're about to be traded to make room for a late first-round pick. Lambeau Field was an icy outpost; the Packers still played a handful of home games in Milwaukee back then. Jackson then moved on to Atlanta just after the collapse of the Mike Smith playoff teams but before the rise of the current Dan Quinn contenders. Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images. Butler was the NFL's most dangerous all-purpose safety for much of the 1990s. Quick: Name the 49ers' all-time sack leader. Maybe Rivers takes his place among the all-time greats. The Pro Football Reference Similar Players tool compares Ryan's five-year peak to that of Joe Theismann. He reached the playoffs as a rookie backup in 2004 and a 32-year-old backup in 2015, but zero times in the decade in between. Maybe Wright wasn't a Blount-level legend, but he deserves better than to be the forgotten man among the Broncos' forgotten men. And because versatility is his calling card, he'll never produce gaudy sack totals or climb any all-time leaderboards. He was a six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro. Entering 2021, Moton had allowed only 10 sacks in over 2,000 pass-blocking snaps. While Kreig didnt possess fleet feet or a bazooka arm, he could read defenses and throw an accurate ball. But few cornerbacks spent more of their careers in the crosshairs than Allen. While coverage is Bates' strength, he can still lay the big hit and be a factor in run support. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. Theyre the core players who are overshadowed by more well-paid, high-profile teammates and just plain pathetic, shameless self-promoters. Developing a rapport with new QB Trevor Lawrence should only help Shenault quickly reach his true potential. Williams' career-high in receptions is only 49, but with increased targets, he has already recorded 31 catches over the first five games in 2021. Hull started his professional career with the USFL's New Jersey Generals, where he helped Herschel Walker rush for 2,411 yards in one 18-game season. By the time the 49ers are great again, Bowman may be in his early 30s or on another team. McDole's Bills defenses held opponents to fewer than 3.1 yards per carry across three consecutive seasons. Since 2013, Jones has registered six double-digit sack seasons including a 17 sack season in 2017 that led the NFL, and a career-high of 19 in 2019. One of the most underrated players in AM Football, Brodie Croyle was drafted into the NFL by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2006 after being a college football standout with the University of Alabama. He played center, as well, before his career was over. If you guessed both or neither one, youre wrong. "Underrated" is in the eye of the beholder, so let's establish some ground rules for these rankings: After that, players are ranked based how underappreciated they are, not how great they are. Off to a fast start in 2021, Sutton is quickly reminding opposing defenses of his talent. No matter. 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. They say you know an offensive lineman is doing a great job when his name is rarely brought up, but its time Moton is talked about more for his success. If the soft-spoken scatback had been in the right place at the right time, he would have filled his one nagging void a Super Bowl title and the exposure that accompanied it. That may tick him off. Super Bowl victories? Gheorghe Hagi, Romania. 'Nuff said, right? He has started every game he has played in since 2014 (with four different franchises). For more information, please read our Legal Disclaimer. A lifelong Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Davids 10-year career has been about consistency and productivity. But things were different in the long-ago 1990s, when the sports universe belonged to teal-emblazoned expansion franchises and a youngish Tom Coughlin received a binder full of press clippings from the mother of a wide receiver ready to call it quits after injuries derailed his Cowboys career. Beachum has lined up at both left and right tackle but displayed Quarterback ratings for Washington skyrocket when targeting McLaurin, who has become a nightmare to defend with the ball in his hands after the catch. 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: A Colts defender delivered some payback in the all-star game. But this list is all about giving overlooked players their due respect. If not for Schlereth's many health problems that included 29 surgeries, 15 on his left knee alone, he would have been a perennial Pro Bowl selection. Dierdorf started his career with the Cardinals in 1971 as a guard. Many of those catches occurred down the field, with Anderson serving as a de facto possession receiver. On a walk-through between center and left guard, naturally. Oh, and Norton scored the final touchdown of the game on a 9-yard fumble return. Brett Favre may be the player most responsible for bringing spectacle and success back to Titletown, but Butler brought back celebration. He played 256 career regular-season games, never missing a start due to injury. A mauler of a right guard, Timmerman also was agile enough to escort Marshall Faulk on screens and sweeps. Butler has never even been a Hall of Fame semifinalist, and it's not going to happen for him soon. He's also among the top 100 in games started (83rd), interception return yardage (89th) and interception return touchdowns (31st). And he played in one stinking Pro Bowl game. WebA key ingredient of arguably the best back four to grace the game Mauro Tassoti, him, Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini the Milan central defender made more than 450 Anderson went on to duel with Walsh and Montana's 49ers in Super Bowl XVI. On this All-Underrated list, he is in very good company. That makes sense: Both started their careers late, played with workhorse running backs, won a championship and had their careers curtailed by vicious hits. Here on the All-Time Underrated List, it counts for a lot. Frank Ryan led the NFL in passing touchdowns twice. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson most underrated nfl players 2000s. Wide receiver Chase Claypool stole headlines as a rookie in 2020, while teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster always seems to attract headlines one way or another. Jordi Alba. Poor Louis Wright has a hard time even making the Broncos' overcrowded All-Snub Team. The Niners' willingness to spend big money on a long-term deal at fullback demonstrates the value and unique skill set Juszczyk provides. A dominant presence as a run blocker, Moton uses his athleticism to get to the next level of the defense in a hurry. The Rams acquired him from the Chargers in 1973 in exchange for defensive end Coy Bacon. Ellard moved on to Washington in 1994 and enjoyed a late-career renaissance, averaging 61 catches and 18.8 yards per reception over a three-year span in his mid-30s. Maybe not, seeing as Nalen has not had much success. 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. Bottom line: Terrell Davis rushed for 2,008 yards in his momentous 1998 season, but look at the game films and you wont see him fake out many defenders or break many tackles. The rumors themselves were not surprising. An ever-growing backlog of outstanding safeties is queuing up outside Canton, as Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed will soon joinJohn Lynch and Brian Dawkins. C'mon, who doesn't love Darren Sproles and Mike Tolbert? But so were teammates like Len Dawson, Willie Lanier, Buck Buchanan, Bobby Bell, Curley Culp and Jan Stenerud, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame. During his time at Fiorentina, he was the best player, 2. "Even now I still get pissed off. Web113 Likes, TikTok video from FootWorld (@lovingfootbal): "The most underrated player of all time #dimaria #football".
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