most underrated nfl players 2000s

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. Most Underappreciated RBs of the 2000s. But check out these popular stories. Joyner, who was beloved by supporters of the Philadelphia Eagles, is a member of the NFL 20/20 club for interceptions and sacks. During that time, he led the league in passer rating four times and passing yards twice. Craters so big that you could drive a semi through them. WebUnderrated 2000s players that don't get the respect they deserve today. Isiah Robertson, LB, Rams, Bills. 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. Member PFWA. That Greene remains one of the most underrated defensive players in history is a mystery when you look at the numbers. When Da Bears bean counters refused to pay up two years later, Marshall was the odd man out again. Anderson went on to duel with Walsh and Montana's 49ers in Super Bowl XVI. Hes also among a select few to be a four-time Super Bowl champion. Maybe he wasn't the best defender on the field for any one play, but he stayed on that field for an entire generation. Mason was frequently his team's most valuable offensive player, but he and Steve McNair made their short pitch-and-catch passes look a little too easy. The trade went how you might expect a lopsided midseason deal for an aging quarterback to go. It's hard for a running back to be underrated. He may not have been as good as Jerry Rice or Randy Moss, but there is a solid argument to be made that Lofton is one of the ten best wide receivers in the history of pro football. The Hall of Fame has turned up its nose on all of them. He was drafted by the Falcons with the eighth overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, and he was an instant Poor Louis Wright has a hard time even making the Broncos' overcrowded All-Snub Team. Greene remains third all-time in the list of career NFL sacks, and 32-year-old Jared Allen is the only active player who is remotely close to catching Greene. During his final collegiate season at UMass in 2018, second-round rookie Andy Isabella was PFFs highest-graded wide receiver in the entire FBS. Men such as Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor. By the time the 49ers are great again, Bowman may be in his early 30s or on another team. Oh, and sub-packages were pretty rare in the 1960s and 1970s, so Marshall didn't leave the field much. Ellard was an Antonio Brown-level talent in his prime, but his teams were in no hurry to get him the ball. Stafford is an underrated quarterback who has also been a pillar of stability outside of his second season and this past year. Guys who played in Jacksonville repeatedly have been crapped on in Pro Bowl and Hall of Fame votes, none more so than Taylor during and after his 11 seasons there. Peppers will have to play three more seasons to catch Marshall, and Peppers' starts are non-consecutive. The 49ers drafted linebacker Reuben Foster at the bottom of the first round. Teams: Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, Bottom line: Fred Taylor once tweeted, "I earned respect on the field. WebMen such as Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Those who have knowledge of National Football League history are well aware of the more famous individuals who made their One of those receivers is Flowers, who totaled over 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns in 12 games this season for Boston College. This list begins with a quarterback who is preparing to play in the 2015 NFL regular season. Turned out he was skilled and driven enough to be a champion. 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. One has to wonder if those QBs will ever receive the respect they truly deserve. Robertson is so poorly remembered that it was hard to find a decent photo of him in our archives. Super Bowl championships: Four (1981, 1984, 1988, 1989). Neal Anderson replaced Walter Payton. He recorded four consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 1988 through 1991, a rare feat at the time. The Jaguars upset John Elway's Broncos and reached the AFC Championship Game as a second-year expansion team and then went on to three more playoff berths, culminating in a 14-2 season. Watch more top videos, highlights, and B/R original content, acquired the 34-year-old Rams quarterback by, Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images, Pro Football Reference Similar Players tool, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Super Bowl victories? Yet he still led his team to the playoffs three more times. Anderson's 1,000-yard seasons came in a primitive offense with a rudimentary passing game. Andre Reed is an all-time great wide receiver who seemingly cannot escape lists of the most underrated football players in history. Web12) Steve Hutchinson: He was the top overall lineman in the NFL for several years, irrespective of position. To make our list, a player must contribute to a winning effort while putting up bad stats, misunderstood stats or no stats. 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. Sideways. But a double whammyplaying center and playing for the Broncoshas kept him miles from Hall of Fame consideration. Ken Anderson, QB, Bengals. His franchises just kept ending up on the wrong side of history. Membership on various All-1960s teams. Lambeau Field was an icy outpost; the Packers still played a handful of home games in Milwaukee back then. And almost nobody remembers that, when Edwards caught the ball, he knew what to do it. WebTaylors 2000s career included him playing with Jacksonville (2000-2008) and New England (2009), and he had some great all-around years as an NFL running back. Terry Porter. 2 due to the fact that more than a few knowledgeable football people have publicly stated that they see Joe Montana as being the greatest quarterback in history. Ryan was Jim Brown's quarterback and then Leroy Kelly's quarterback. 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. Sad to say, Morgan was woefully miscast in a run-first offense in a less pass-friendly time. He also doesn't play in the shadow of a legend. Lomas Brown played left tackle for four Lions playoff teams. Unlike many of Marshall's teammates, however, he wasnt an obnoxious self-promoter, which partly explained his absence from the NFC Pro Bowl roster that season. But this list is all about giving overlooked players their due respect. Quick: Name the 49ers' all-time sack leader. Lofton was the first player in NFL history to accumulate 14,000 receiving yards. But McCree did fumble. Fitzgerald has been a mainstay in lists of Top 100 players in the NFL for years. Mason's 95-catch, 1,200-yard seasons translate to 115-catch monsters in more pass-oriented schemes. One of the big Pro Bowl misses from 2015 is the player I think is the NFL 's Most Underrated. 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. Pro Football Reference rates him at near a Pro Bowl level well into his 30s. Any defensive player breaking into the NFL in 2015 would love to be mentioned alongside such names when his career came to an end. There may be such a thing as too much blitzing, after all. And they really deserve more love. Hence, the Campbell video. Addiction soon began consuming Smith's career, and then his life. He is Baltimore Ravens nose tackle Brandon Williams. But no highlight clip of that play can be found on the internet. As good as Ellard was at the time, he almost was never mentioned in debates about the best at his position. At its core, PFF is a player evaluation system play-by-play grading of every player in the NFL and access to some of the same stats, grades and info that all 32 NFL 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. And you're never going to guess who's No. Tom Jackson. The Steelers rushed for a then-record 249 yards and did not allow a sack. Krieg was a career overachiever who survived 19 seasons on modest talent with defense-driven teams. Kenny Anderson may be the most "so underrated that he's overrated" player in NFL historya darling of the stat-head community and common first-guy-mentioned when Hall of Fame snubs come up. ), Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers, Super Bowl championships: Two (1974, 1975). The converted all-purpose athlete became one of the fathers of modern quarterbacking. Not one of the Jim Harbaugh-era guys. Numbers better than majority of RBs in history. For years, the team couldn't even harken back to its glory days properly, as Smith's Pride of the Jaguars induction was delayed until he was sober and no longer under house arrest. In two Super Bowl trips, Bahr didnt miss a kick three field goals, six PATs. Arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cunningham rightfully so makes it into this list. Mike Kenn began his career playing left tackle for a lumbering 1970s power-running offense. Actually, theres a simple explanation. Let's face it: An entire All-Underrated Team can be assembled using only Broncos defenders. He was a Pro Bowl regular, two-time All-Pro and Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1971. He played 256 career regular-season games, never missing a start due to injury. LeRoy Butler, S, Packers. They didnt allow a sack in 84 pass attempts. Truth is, Norton should have been Super Bowl XXVII Most Valuable Player, not Troy Aikman, who was the obligatory quarterback pick. Thats been the real surprise. Bahr converted 84 percent of his field-goal attempts (21 of 25), and 98 percent of his extra-point tries (40 of 41) when it counted most. Player A passed for 27,928 yards and 194 touchdowns and ran for four touchdowns with mostly very good teams and one great one. Bottom line: OK, kids, lets play Name That Hall of Famer. Theyre the core players who are overshadowed by more well-paid, high-profile teammates and just plain pathetic, shameless self-promoters. The guy should demand a recount, I tell ya. In Super Bowl IX, Edwards killed a drive and darn near Vikings intended receiver John Gilliam on a hellacious hit near the goal line. Only a dozen players have more career interception return yards (961), and seven of them are in the Hall of Fame. While that is a point worthy of being discussed, it cannot be ignored that Young had a higher completion percentage and a better passer rating than Montana. WebDeAngelo Hall was quietly one of the best defensive backs of the 2000s. Once an arbitrary number of players from a historic team get enshrined, the committee moves on in search of underappreciated players from other franchises. This includes a wide receiver that some younger fans may have never before heard of, and also multiple quarterbacks who are still playing in the NFL as of the posting of this piece. That's not something to hold against a player. The only lineman to start all four of those games was a workout warrior and routinely bench-pressed 550 pounds in his prime. Incredibly, McDole started 97 of the next 98 games. The Bills were among the first teams to frequently operate without a huddle. Mills looks like just another local hero linebacker in the encyclopedias, albeit a good one. He should be remembered as more than a throwback to the era when Lawrence Welk references were topical. The Colts accused Ryan of running up the score in the 27-0 championship rout of 1964. Wouldnt you know it? Cleveland sports will be the death of him. Mookie The Thief Blaylock made his mark on the defensive end, setting the pace for the steals race in 1996-97 and 1997-98, averaging 2.7 and 2.6, respectively. Anchoring defenses with catchy names like the "Orange Crush?" Tom Nalen protected John Elway in a pair of Super Bowl victories and helped trigger a zone-blocking revolution as part of Alex Gibbs' influential offensive lines. One of those receivers is New England Patriots wide receiver Stanley Morgan, right, battles for a ball with In 10 of the 12 seasons in which he started at least half their games, the Seahawks prevailed more times than not. Brown did one thing terribly wrong in 18 NFL seasons, but for his teams to win as often as they did, he must have done an awful lot more right. Allen made a lot of plays. I still don't know that people gave me my due respect for my production. It takes more than mere greatness to be considered one of the most underrated players in pro football history. Cunningham is widely regarded as one of the best running QBs in the history of the NFL, but his ability to make plays with his arm should not be ignored. The linebacker ranks 17th in career solo tackles (1,130) and is the only player to be part of three consecutive Super Bowl champions. It's not that Ellard, an Olympic-caliber triple-jumper with 4.4 speed, didn't know what he was doing. Jacksonville's all-time leading receiver is now beginning what he calls the "second chapter in his life." Try Dave Krieg. Butler has never even been a Hall of Fame semifinalist, and it's not going to happen for him soon. Young played for some great 49ers teams, including a Super Bowl-winning squad as a rookie in 1994. 1. Brett Favre may be the player most responsible for bringing spectacle and success back to Titletown, but Butler brought back celebration. While you may not put him in your top-tier of all-time great running backs, Anderson deserves more than a mention for a spot in the next tier of that imaginary list. But what peak years they were: 14- and 13-win seasons, annual playoff appearances, routine 4,000-yard, 30-touchdown seasons. His stardom was spread among three teams, robbing him of local hero status (or Hall of Fame momentum) in any one city. It made the Bills of the early 1990s the greatest team to never win a Super Bowl. Karl Mecklenburg. Most seasons with 30 made field goals (7). A Colts defender delivered some payback in the all-star game. 'Nuff said, right? But here's the thing: Gradishar, Mecklenberg and Atwater are famous for being snubbed. NFL career: Cleveland Browns (2005-12), New York Jets (2013), Indianapolis Colts (2014) Bottom Line: Josh Cribbs. He has already waited too long for that deserved honor. Smith produced nine 1,000-yard seasons in 10 years, including two 100-plus-catch seasons in an era when they were still relatively uncommon. He is one of the best receivers in history, and he has the stats to back up such claims. Steven Jackson arrived in St. Louis just as the Greatest Show on Turf was deteriorating into the Most Miserable Slog in the Midwest. The weekend opened with the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. But don't write him off as some 1960s product of the system. The Over-the-Hill Gang fielded one of the most ferocious pass rushes of its era, notching 53 sacks in 1973. Ryan threw five touchdown passes and ran for a sixth to beat the Giants and lead the Browns to the NFL championship in 1964. Even pesky third-down backs and gritty fullbacks may seem underrated until you realize how many of them become local heroes. Through the 2018 season, Vinatieri checked in at 81 (56 of 69) and 99 (70 of 71), respectively. And consider this: The one-time college triple-jumper played with a Pro Bowl quarterback (Jim Everett) in only one season. He was arrested four times after his abrupt retirement. He's the Rams' all-time leading rusher with almost 3,000 more yards for the franchise than Marshall Faulk or Eric Dickerson. It would rank 16th all-time, except that if we allow Marshall's sacks into the record, we would have to make room for Deacon Jones, Mean Joe Greene and others. Brown is now best known as a television personality. A mauler of a right guard, Timmerman also was agile enough to escort Marshall Faulk on screens and sweeps. Teams: Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1993, 1995, 1997), Super Bowl championships: Three (1992, 1993, 1994). Even unspectacular ones manage to rack up a few 1,000-yard seasons and get drafted early in fantasy leagues. A Super Bowl ring and two AFL championships. If the quarterback got rid of the ball before getting crushed, it was up to Allen to make a play. It takes bad timing and bad luck. Chandler Jones, The easiest way to be overlooked by history is to replace a legend just after a franchise has peaked. Where did Davis score the game-winner late in Super Bowl XXXII? The NFL is now full of receivers like Mason, but few of them are as productive as he was for over a decade. Jim Marshall, DE, Vikings. 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. "That was my territory," Edwards recalled in The Palm Beach Post. "No one was going to catch no ball.". Bottom line: One of the premier long-ball threats of any era, Stanley Morgan ranks 10th in yards per reception (19.2) and 39th in touchdown catches (72) on the all-time list. If John Hadl is remembered for anything these days, it's for one of the most disastrous trades in NFL history. Other than Steve Largent and Kurt Warner, Pro Bowlers were harder to find in the Seahawks offense than a haystack in the Space Needle. Hudson, a two-time NFL MVP, was the dominant receiver in the league at a time when passing attacks were nothing near what they are in the modern game. As much as there are people who would say that Cunningham remains an underrated quarterback, there are also some out there who would say that people have oversold how great he was during his career. Dont let the numbers fool you Morgan wasnt a one-trick racehorse. WebJermaine O'Neal, Chauncey Billups and Peja Stojakovic are among the most underrated players of the 2000s. He then went on to start at left tackle for the playoff-bound Cardinals and 2000 NFC champion Giants. 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. 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. No modern coach suppressed passing offenses quite like Fisher, and no team produces offensive stats that look like they come from the early 1930s quite like the Ravens. These are the most underrated college football players of all time. Yet somehow, some way, Kolb never received a Pro Bowl invitation. It was rival 49ers tackle Bryant Young who the Rams were most concerned about before the 1999 season, when they signed Timmerman as a free agent. Now, underrated can mean a couple of things. Even so, Smith was pretty much a well-kept secret outside Pittsburgh despite meeting or approaching Pro Bowl standards for almost a decade. They didnt do anything that Tobin Rote hadnt done a long time ago. Some might find it ridiculous that Steve Young, widely revered as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, even cracks into this list. WebAll-Time Most Underrated NFL Players by Position. Years: 1990-2004. Kenn is one of the NFL's all-time great players and leaders, and his impact ranges far beyond his playing career. One of the best players in the league during the 1980s, Monk is too often unappreciated in lists of all-time great wide receivers. The correct answer is Player A (Ken Stabler), and if youre Player B (Brodie), you have to wonder if one Super Bowl should make that much difference. The least glamorous position on the field, a so-so team, a franchise moveWisniewski pulled three lemons on the recognition slot machine. He also had some of the clutch gene. 4,409 Rushing Attempts. Twenty years ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars were one of the marquee organizations in professional sports, and Jimmy Smith was one of their brightest stars. NaVorro Bowman trade rumors surfaced in early spring, only to be quickly squelched by new 49ers general manager John Lynch. But Anderson was an extraordinary talent. Bruce found the end zone over 90 times in regular season play during his career, and he is one of five players in the history of the NFL to go for over 15,000 total receiving yards. Schlereth started in three Super Bowls with the Redskins and Broncos, all of them victories. The prejudice against punters that kept such great players out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame came to an end when Ray Guy was honored by voters. But three of his best seasons are not listed in the encyclopedias. It is difficult to rank Ken Anderson in this list if only because he is constantly referenced as being an underrated player. Guards don't make the Hall of Fame unless they win multiple Super Bowls or play forever. 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. 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. 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.

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