Its hard to think of a player more dominant and less talked about over a long period of time than Chandler Jones. If Marlon McCree hadn't fumbled that interception in the playoffs after the 2006 season, everything might have been different. He arrived in Buffalo at the same time Marv Levy was revolutionizing NFL offense with the help of Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas. It takes bad timing and bad luck. Taylor rushed for 1,000-plus yards in seven seasons. Dont know about you, but I want Mason on my retro fantasy league team. Teams: Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos, Super Bowl championships: Three (1991, 1997, 1998). Let's hope the fame doesn't go to his head. As for being so underrated he's overrated, wellthat's extremely underrated, which justifies Anderson's ranking here. Bowman makes this list because he has the makings of a player who will be underappreciated historically. Antoine Griezmann is known for his excellent left foot and can score and create goals with it; hence, he is one of the best left-footed midfielders. Wright earned a second-team All-1970s nod from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even though several of his signature years were in the 1980s. 2022 NFL Mock Draft: Jacksonville Jaguars overtake Detroit for No. Those accomplishments may soon finally land Kenn in the Hall of Fame. Teams: Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, Bottom line: Fred Taylor once tweeted, "I earned respect on the field. So LeRoy Butler, innovator of the Lambeau Leap, is excluded from his own statue. But Anderson was an extraordinary talent. 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. He led his team to an NFL championship. Jerry Hughes has been a consistent pass rusher and important piece to the Buffalo Bills defense. But no highlight clip of that play can be found on the internet. And he played in one stinking Pro Bowl game. "Because when the ball was thrown, I knew I had better ball skills and would go up and get it.". The NFL is now full of receivers like Mason, but few of them are as productive as he was for over a decade. 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. He took over as the Bears' featured offensive weapon after the Super Bowl Shuffle years. Get this: Ten of those seasons were spent with either the Vince Lombardi Packers or Don Shula Dolphins. 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. At 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, he didnt wow anyone physically. 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. Robinson is a staple of Hall of Fame Snubs lists, and he certainly has his case. One look at the logjam forming outside the entrance to Canton tells you Wisniewski isn't moving up the ladder anytime soon. By the time the 49ers are great again, Bowman may be in his early 30s or on another team. Maybe he wasn't the best defender on the field for any one play, but he stayed on that field for an entire generation. Johnny Robinson's credentials make you want to drive to Canton, kick down the Hall of Fame's door and clear a spot for his bust yourself. 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. WebThe Top 10 Most Underrated Football Players of All Time 1. 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. 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. As Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase earn praise for helping bring competitive football back to Cincinnati, safety Jessie Bates is a huge reason for the Bengals turnaround on defense. Oakland Raiders. 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. Anderson's 1,000-yard seasons came in a primitive offense with a rudimentary passing game. Developing a rapport with new QB Trevor Lawrence should only help Shenault quickly reach his true potential. He was overshadowed by more famous teammates throughout his career. David was a crucial component of the Bucs defense during their playoff run in 2020 that culminated in a Super Bowl victory. Year after year, Chandler Jones is one of the best pure pass rushers in football. Poor Louis Wright has a hard time even making the Broncos' overcrowded All-Snub Team. WebOnce called the toughest cornerback in the NFL by Jerry Rice, Lewis would have received much more acclaim in his career if hed played a position that wasnt just following other You will find some familiar Hall of Fame snubs on this list (like Jim Marshall, pictured above), but also plenty of players who were even snubbed from the Hall of Fame snubs, plus some current players who aren't getting their due. And few were better at making opposing quarterbacks pay for mistakes. 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. Jeff Saturday had to translate Peyton Manning's spur-of-the-moment audibles into protection schemes a split second before the snap. Butler was the NFL's most dangerous all-purpose safety for much of the 1990s. While under the radar, Bates has emerged as one of the better all-around safeties in football. He also had some of the clutch gene. 1 overall pick, NFL coverage map 2021: TV schedule Week 16, Seattle Seahawks: 3 players who wont be back in 2022. 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. 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. Its a frigging joke that Taylor isnt in the Hall of Fame discussion. The NFL is a star-driven league. McDole played 251 professional games as a defensive lineman, a remarkable feat in any era that should not be forgotten. He finished his career by doing something almost impossible: signing with the Patriots as a veteran role player during one of the few years they didn't reach the Super Bowl. No one should expect to make money from the picks and predictions discussed on this website. The Hall of Fame eluded Ellard for several reasons: comparisons to Rice, the Rams' move to St. Louis (it takes hometown writers and buzz to mount a campaign) and those five early seasons in a ground-and-pound offense. 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. It was a motivating factor for a number of years in my career. He began his career at the tail end of Jim Harbaugh's great defensive teams, but he has since battled both injuries and the incompetence of the Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly experiments. 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. Waller overcame addiction and his suspension to emerge in 2019, catching 90 passes for 1,145 yards and three touchdowns while starting all 16 games for the Raiders. He recorded four consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 1988 through 1991, a rare feat at the time. "Stanley Steamer" could run every route and was hell on wheels with the ball in his hands. Hadl signed with the Chargers instead, and Sid Gilman built him into the trigger man for an offense from which all modern offenses descended. Peppers will have to play three more seasons to catch Marshall, and Peppers' starts are non-consecutive. All betting content is intended for an audience ages 21+. It made the Bills of the early 1990s the greatest team to never win a Super Bowl. A Colts defender delivered some payback in the all-star game. McDole was known as "The Dancing Bear" because of his nimble feet, one of the coolest nicknames ever. The rumors themselves were not surprising. 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. But the former NFL Man of the Year award winner and two-time All-Pro should not have had to wait so long. 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. He played left tackle in 1972 and moved to right tackle in 1974. He's the Rams' all-time leading rusher with almost 3,000 more yards for the franchise than Marshall Faulk or Eric Dickerson. Bottom line: Never mind guys such as Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson. 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. McLaurins route running continues to improve while routinely making contested catches look easy. He was a eight-time Pro Bowler and one-time Super Bowl champion. "I dont get it. He lacked the straight-line speed to be a game-breaker. And you're never going to guess who's No. He intercepted 34 passes for the Eagles and 54 in his career. Those who like to shout "first-ballot Hall of Famer" about Rivers do not know how the Hall of Fame works. Mason's 95-catch, 1,200-yard seasons translate to 115-catch monsters in more pass-oriented schemes. That's not something to hold against a player. in the mid-1960s to early '70s, chances are "Whichever one has Marv Fleming" would have been a correct answer. Because he is one of the NFL's best defensive players, for one thing. Jones played for the Cowboys from 1974-78 and 1980-89. The former top ten draft pick looks to be on the verge of breaking out. If the quarterback got rid of the ball before getting crushed, it was up to Allen to make a play. In their two Super Bowl seasons that followed, Young was a virtual nonfactor in the matchup. Drew Brees endured an average of just 24 sacks per season in Evans' All-Pro seasons, despite typically dropping back to pass over 650 times per year. Both Courtland Sutton and teammate Tim Patrick could easily make this list together as neither player is discussed nearly enough. Measurables. Actually, make that four careers. Waller upped his game in 2020 and hauled in 107 passes and nine touchdowns to earn his first Pro Bowl nod. Put Ellard in another era or even the AFC with an accomplished quarterback, and his legacy as The Best Wideout Not Named Jerry Rice would be that much greater. The AFL was an eight- to 10-team league, so All-Pro selections were easier to come by. Ryan needed surgery and was in constant pain for the rest of his career. Even so, Smith was pretty much a well-kept secret outside Pittsburgh despite meeting or approaching Pro Bowl standards for almost a decade. Sutton hauled in 72 catches for 1,112 yards during his second season in the league before a knee injury cut short his 2020campaign after 1 game. Ogbah has always been a steady presence rushing the quarterback but broke out in 2020 during his first season with the Dolphins. "It was tough, but I was happy for those guys," Dunn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mills looks like just another local hero linebacker in the encyclopedias, albeit a good one. Two names that are familiar to even casual football fans sit atop the mountaintop of underrated NFL players for the 2015 regular season. 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 49ers drafted linebacker Reuben Foster at the bottom of the first round. Web#shortsucl#bayernmunich #bayern #barcelona#football#footballedit#footballedits#footballshirts#soccer#socceredit#socceredits#soccershorts The best we can offer is a little bit of credit where a lot is due. Defensive Player of the Year awards? You mean future Hall of Fame tackle Orlando Pace didnt block four guys all by himself? Teammates Alan Page and Carl Ellar were held in higher regard. But outside of Wisconsin, his accomplishments were mostly forgotten shortly after his career ended in 2001. Teams kept doing something special to get their hands on Hadl. Raphael Guerreiro of Borussia Dortmund Looks He once threw three touchdowns in a shutout victory in a title game. Randy Gradishar. Its easy to forget the Seahawks had some pretty good teams way back when, even a few playoff ones. Overshadowed on a bad team for much of his early career, Bates also came from a draft that featured top safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Derwin James. Photo by JOHN CAPUTO/AFP via Getty Images, ST. LOUIS, MO CIRCA 1980: Ed Jones #72 of the Dallas Cowboys gets blocked by Dan Dierdorf #72 of the St. Louis Cardinals during an NFL football game circa 1980 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. Nothing screams underappreciated like rumors you're about to be traded to make room for a late first-round pick. Six All-Pro selections. original sound - ftbl vids 221. He was an iron man for a powerhouse franchise that reached four Super Bowls while playing many of their home games in arctic conditions. Super Bowl championships: Two (1996, 1999). While Kreig didnt possess fleet feet or a bazooka arm, he could read defenses and throw an accurate ball. There are over 120 teams that compete in the FBS, which means that storylines and hidden superstars abound. Jones has also recorded at least 100 tackles every year since entering the league with the exception of 2018 when he played in only 6 games. He is also proficient with his right foot and is a versatile player who can play multiple positions in the attacking third of the pitch. The fullback has become a non-factor in many of todays NFL offenses, but Juszczyk remains an integral part of how the San Francisco 49ers run their offense. Lambeau Field was an icy outpost; the Packers still played a handful of home games in Milwaukee back then. Now that's underrated. 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. Eric Allen's job in Buddy Ryan's 46 defense was simple. "Hate to say it, but I do believe I should be there (in Canton)," Marshall once said. If you guessed both or neither one, youre wrong. There, he led a relentless Redskins pass rush in their Super Bowl XXVI ambush. What Mason did have was a keen attention to detail and fanatical drive to succeed. He has started every game he has played in since 2014 (with four different franchises). Let's face it: An entire All-Underrated Team can be assembled using only Broncos defenders. Fewer yet realize that he made a crucial play in each victory. Dierdorf started his career with the Cardinals in 1971 as a guard. Anderson was the first quarterback to successfully orchestrate the beta version of Bill Walsh's West Coast offense for multiple seasons. He intercepted 25 career regular-season passes and two more in the postseason. Anderson went on to duel with Walsh and Montana's 49ers in Super Bowl XVI. Evans is a long shot to do either, which is a shame. Gheorghe Hagi, Romania. 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. That may tick him off. He ran a Sonny Jurgensen pass back 59 yards in the fourth quarter to seal a Rams playoff win over the Redskins in 1974. Still don't understand why the writers don't respect it.". He returned eight interceptions for touchdowns, including four in 1993 and three during his age-35 season with the Raiders in 2000. McLaurins numbers through two-plus seasons are very similar to Stefon Diggs, who went through a similar quarterback situation early during his career in Minnesota. He played center, as well, before his career was over. Oh, and sub-packages were pretty rare in the 1960s and 1970s, so Marshall didn't leave the field much. We could just trudge onward to the next player right now. Through the 2018 season, Vinatieri checked in at 81 (56 of 69) and 99 (70 of 71), respectively. As good as Ellard was at the time, he almost was never mentioned in debates about the best at his position. Dunn left Tampa Bay as a free agent after the 2001 season and headed to Atlanta, largely because of his relationship with Arthur Blank, the Falcons owner. More than one scout considered Turner to be too light to play linebacker, too slow to play defensive back. 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. If John Hadl is remembered for anything these days, it's for one of the most disastrous trades in NFL history. Lets hear some "un-der-ra-ted!" Sad to say, Morgan was woefully miscast in a run-first offense in a less pass-friendly time. 25 Feb/23. On the field, it is Diontae Johnson that has emerged as a favorite target of Big Ben. Here on the All-Time Underrated List, it counts for a lot. The guy should demand a recount, I tell ya. Dunn finished his career with 15,655 all-purpose yards, 25th in league history, one of the best players never to be a champion. Teams: Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Tennessee Oilers, Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1984, 1988, 1989). There's underrated, underappreciated and overlooked. On this All-Underrated list, he is in very good company. The Bills were among the first teams to frequently operate without a huddle. There are no official sack statistics before 1982, but the Minnesota Vikings credit Jim Marshall with 127 career sacks. WebTop 20 Most Underrated Footballers in 2022 1. Once an arbitrary number of players from a historic team get enshrined, the committee moves on in search of underappreciated players from other franchises. Much of the Saints' offensive success in Evans' prime years is rightfully credited to Brees. Other than Steve Largent and Kurt Warner, Pro Bowlers were harder to find in the Seahawks offense than a haystack in the Space Needle. He played 256 career regular-season games, never missing a start due to injury. The only lineman to start all four of those games was a workout warrior and routinely bench-pressed 550 pounds in his prime. Many of those catches occurred down the field, with Anderson serving as a de facto possession receiver. 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". Honourable Mentions Hajime Hosogai, Hertha Berlin DM, Age: 27 A dominant presence as a run blocker, Moton uses his athleticism to get to the next level of the defense in a hurry. That "something" was throwing for more than 29,000 yards and going to four AFL All-Star Games and a Pro Bowl with the Chargers and then leading the Rams to a 12-2 record in 1973. In 10 of the 12 seasons in which he started at least half their games, the Seahawks prevailed more times than not. Teams: Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1993, 1995, 1997), Super Bowl championships: Three (1992, 1993, 1994). 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. He blitzed (20.5 sacks). 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. Brown is now best known as a television personality. There have been too many players in NFL history to count, so naturally, many of them werent going to get the attention they deserved for their play. Yet he still led his team to the playoffs three more times. David has amassed 12 interceptions, 16 fumble recoveries, 24 forced fumbles, and 53 pass deflections during his career. His 4.53 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine was far from elite level speed either, but none of that has not stopped Johnson from playing fast and producing at a high level for the Steelers. WebThe 10 most underrated football players of all time are: Gheorghe Hagi, Michael Laudrup, Gaetano Scirea, Hristo Stoichkov, Matthias Sammer, Davor Suker, Gunter Netzer, It's Bryant Young, whorecorded 89.5 sacks for the 49ers, 23 more than Haley. 1. Frank Ryan led the NFL in passing touchdowns twice. While most Giants fans remember Meggett, he is still one of the most underrated players of all time. Hes also among a select few to be a four-time Super Bowl champion. But c'mon: 289 regular-season and postseason starts, 127 sacks and four Super Bowl appearances, yet the Hall of Fame turns up its nose at Marshall as just a pretty good defender with a long career? 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. A Super Bowl ring and two AFL championships. It didnt help that he had ordinary quarterbacks named Tony Eason and Steve Grogan to throw him the ball. It's better to be remembered for one of the most painful moments in your career than to not be remembered at all. McDole is not known for much of anything anymore, as his AFL stardom came before the Super Bowl era and his Redskins heroics predated the era of Joe Gibbs and the Hogs. He was one of the first true slot receivers of 21st-century NFL offenses. Try Dave Krieg. According to Pro Football Reference, he was flagged for 14 accepted holding penalties in 187 career games, little more than one per season. Quarterback is the most important position in organized football and maybe in all of sports, so it should be no surprise that men who play QB dominate the top spots of this list. Bottom line: After eight seasons in Buffalo, where he had been a mainstay with the best defense in AFL history, Ron McDole took his two-bar helmet to Washington. WebThe NFL is increasingly becoming a passing league. As a 31-year-old, no less. Bowman is a four-time All-Pro and tremendous all-purpose linebacker who emerged as a stalwart leader for teams that otherwise might have packed it in before Labor Day. A Hall of Fame voter once warned me that "every town has its linebacker.". Modern centers don't get the credit they deserve. Bottom line: In the Steelers' 3-4 scheme, defensive ends were akin to smaller, more agile tackles run-stoppers first, pass-rushers second. Waller was a sixth-round draft pick at wide receiver by the Ravens in 2015 and struggled to find targets early in his career in spite of his 66 frame. 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. "No one was going to catch no ball.". Lomas Brown played left tackle for four Lions playoff teams. While Stafford's game is Hall of Fame worthy, an 0-3 career record in the playoffs on some flawed Lions teams has done little to elevate his name into the conversation of top QBs. When the Rams finally earned a Super Bowl berth, Robertson was in Buffalo, playing for another playoff also-ran. 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. Mike Williams is an elite deep threat at wide receiver and has maintained an average YPC of over 15 every year since 2018. While 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. Evans is still playing at a high level; the Packers hope that he can do for Aaron Rodgers what he did for Brees. So Anderson cranked out a few 1,000-yard seasons and played in some Pro Bowls, and that was that. Coaches rave about his work off the field and his dedication to improving his craft. But Hadl had to do something to make the Packers think he was worth two armfuls of draft picks. Bottom line: If an inquiring mind had asked "Which team will win the Super Bowl?" C'mon, who doesn't love Darren Sproles and Mike Tolbert? It takes more than mere greatness to be considered one of the most underrated players in pro football history. But he didn't play for the legendary 49ers teams. His 65 interceptions are fifth most in NFL history. So Kenn basically had three careers. After the Bills failed to score, he knocked quarterback Jim Kelly out of the game in the next series. No, what youll see are lots of gaping holes the size of Boulder. There may be such a thing as too much blitzing, after all. Teams: Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins. If Anderson had failed, the 49ers may never have lured Walsh away from the Bengals staff. On a walk-through between center and left guard, naturally. And to think, the guy never played in a Pro Bowl game. He's also among the top 100 in games started (83rd), interception return yardage (89th) and interception return touchdowns (31st). Ellard was an Antonio Brown-level talent in his prime, but his teams were in no hurry to get him the ball. 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. The converted all-purpose athlete became one of the fathers of modern quarterbacking. That feeling never really went away.". 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.
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