Most Underrated NFL Players of All Time

These men did so much but received so little credit in return.

Most Underrated NFL Players of All Time

Stanley Morgan and Leslie Frazier — New England Patriots wide receiver Stanley Morgan, right, battles for a ball with Chicago Bears defensive back Leslie Frazier in 1982.

You know the type. They’re the flat-liners whose drop-dead consistency gets lost with average-to-bad teams, in smaller markets, with brain-challenged organizations that have little, if any, history of success.

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. They’re the core players who are overshadowed by more well-paid, high-profile teammates and just plain pathetic, shameless self-promoters.

We’re talking about the most unsung, underappreciated players in NFL history here. So whaddya say, fans? Let’s hear some "un-der-ra-ted!" chants for the best players who didn’t get their just dues over the years.

Ground rules: A max of three Pro Bowl invitations. And no Hall of Famers allowed.

20. Marv Fleming, Tight End/Wide Receiver

Teams: Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins

Experience: 12 years (1963-74)

Pro Bowl appearances: None

NFL championship: One (1965)

Super Bowl championships: Four (1966, 1967, 1972, 1973)

Bottom line: If an inquiring mind had asked "Which team will win the Super Bowl?" in the mid-1960s to early '70s, chances are "Whichever one has Marv Fleming" would have been a correct answer.

Fleming was a reliable backup tight end/wide receiver who played with four Super Bowl-winners (and one NFL champion) in a dozen seasons. Get this: Ten of those seasons were spent with either the Vince Lombardi Packers or Don Shula Dolphins.

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.

19. Adam Timmerman, Offensive Guard

Teams: Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Rams

Experience: 12 years (1995-2006)

Pro Bowl appearances: One (2001)

Super Bowl championships: Two (1996, 1999)

Bottom line: The Greatest Show On Turf boasted so much star power you couldn’t tell the other Rams without a program. Start with Adam Timmerman, who won Super Bowl rings with the Packers and Rams three years apart.

A mauler of a right guard, Timmerman also was agile enough to escort Marshall Faulk on screens and sweeps. Efficient? According to Pro Football Reference, he was flagged for 14 accepted holding penalties in 187 career games, little more than one per season.

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. In their two Super Bowl seasons that followed, Young was a virtual nonfactor in the matchup. He had one sack in four games, all Rams victories.

You mean future Hall of Fame tackle Orlando Pace didn’t block four guys all by himself?

18. Dave Krieg, Quarterback

Dave Krief — Seattle quarterback Dave Krieg gets sacked by New England Patriots linebacker Andrew Tippett during a 1984 game at Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Teams: Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Tennessee Oilers

Experience: 19 years (1980-98)

Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1984, 1988, 1989)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: Quick, name the winningest Seahawks quarterback before the Russell Wilson era. Hmmm. Ken Griffey Jr.? Ohhh-kaaaaay, one of the Hasselbecks then? Try Dave Krieg.

It’s easy to forget the Seahawks had some pretty good teams way back when, even a few playoff ones. An undrafted quarterback out of the late Milton College (Wisconsin), Krieg got them to the postseason four times and the AFC championship game once.

Krieg was a career overachiever who survived 19 seasons on modest talent with defense-driven teams. Other than Steve Largent and Kurt Warner, Pro Bowlers were harder to find in the Seahawks offense than a haystack in the Space Needle.

While Kreig didn’t possess fleet feet or a bazooka arm, he could read defenses and throw an accurate ball. He also had some of the clutch gene. His 23 fourth-quarter comebacks (20th overall) are more than Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly, Sonny Jurgensen and Bart Starr, to name a few Hall of Famers at the position.

That’s what Krieg did best — win football games. In 10 of the 12 seasons in which he started at least half their games, the Seahawks prevailed more times than not. His .588 win percentage ranks second to Wilson in team history.

17. Keena Turner, Linebacker

Teams: San Francisco 49ers

Experience: 11 years (1980-90)

Pro Bowl appearances: One (1984)

Super Bowl championships: Four (1981, 1984, 1988, 1989)

Bottom line: The 49ers of the 1980s are remembered most for Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, coach Bill Walsh and the West Coast offense. Let’s not forget they also dominated with cold-blooded efficiency at the other side of the ball, where Keena Turner was rarely out of position at right outside linebacker.

Turner was the ultimate plug-and-play guy, one of five 49ers to be part of all eight of their playoff teams in the decade. He’s also among a select few to be a four-time Super Bowl champion.

More than one scout considered Turner to be too light to play linebacker, too slow to play defensive back. Turned out he was skilled and driven enough to be a champion.

16. Aaron Smith, Defensive End

Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers

Experience: 13 years (1999-2011)

Pro Bowl appearances: One (2004)

Super Bowl championships: Two (2005, 2008)

Bottom line: In the Steelers' 3-4 scheme, defensive ends were akin to smaller, more agile tackles — run-stoppers first, pass-rushers second. In the nine seasons that Aaron Smith had double-digit starts, their D ranked among the top nine in yards allowed every time, but his consistent play went over the heads of many.

Smith wasn’t a no-show on third-and-long, either. He had 44 career sacks and as many as eight in a season on two occasions.

Even so, Smith was pretty much a well-kept secret outside Pittsburgh despite meeting or approaching Pro Bowl standards for almost a decade.

15. Warrick Dunn, Running Back

Teams: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons

Experience: 12 years (1997-2008)

Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1997, 2000, 2005)

Super Bowl championships: None

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. 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.

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. Wouldn’t you know it? The Bucs hired head coach Jon Gruden and won Super Bowl XXXVII the next season.

"It was tough, but I was happy for those guys," Dunn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "When I was there, the thing we were missing was that explosive type of offense, and the new coach brought that in.’"

Dunn finished his career with 15,655 all-purpose yards, 25th in league history, one of the best players never to be a champion.

14. Henry Ellard, Wide Receiver

Teams: Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins

Experience: 16 years (1983-98)

Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1984, 1988, 1989)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: For 16 seasons, Henry Ellard wreaked havoc as a pass receiver and punt returner. Seven times, he surpassed 1,000 yards on pass receptions, most of them on slants and corner routes. And consider this: The one-time college triple-jumper played with a Pro Bowl quarterback (Jim Everett) in only one season.

"I wasn’t the fastest guy, but I didn’t mind having the defender at my hip," Ellard said per Yahoo Sports. "Because when the ball was thrown, I knew I had better ball skills and would go up and get it."

As good as Ellard was at the time, he almost was never mentioned in debates about the best at his position. 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.

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.

13. Stanley Morgan, Wide Receiver

Teams: New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts

Experience: 14 years (1977-90)

Pro Bowl appearances: Four (1979, 1980, 1986, 1987)

Super Bowl championships: None

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. Not bad for a guy who might as well have played in a straight jacket for 14 seasons.

Don’t let the numbers fool you — Morgan wasn’t a one-trick racehorse. Far from it. "Stanley Steamer" could run every route and was hell on wheels with the ball in his hands.

Sad to say, Morgan was woefully miscast in a run-first offense in a less pass-friendly time. It didn’t help that he had ordinary quarterbacks named Tony Eason and Steve Grogan to throw him the ball.

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.

12. Mark Schlereth, Offensive Guard

Mark Schlereth and Redskins offensive linemen — From left to right, Washington Redskins offensive linemen Ed Simmons, Ray Brown, Jim Lachey and Mark Schlereth during the final minutes of a 20-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in a 1993 NFC divisional playoff game at Candlestick Park.

Teams: Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos

Experience: 12 years (1989-2000)

Pro Bowl appearances: Two (1991, 1998)

Super Bowl championships: Three (1991, 1997, 1998)

Bottom line: Terrell Davis rushed for 2,008 yards in his momentous 1998 season, but look at the game films and you won’t see him fake out many defenders or break many tackles.

No, what you’ll see are lots of gaping holes the size of Boulder. Craters so big that you could drive a semi through them. Sideways.

Know who created those wide-open spaces? Mostly Schlereth and sidekick Tom Nalen, who were masters of zone-blocking schemes, a major reason why Davis is in the Hall of Fame today.

Schlereth started in three Super Bowls with the Redskins and Broncos, all of them victories. His teams averaged 392.0 yards and 34.0 points in those games. They didn’t allow a sack in 84 pass attempts.

Where did Davis score the game-winner late in Super Bowl XXXII? On a walk-through between center and left guard, naturally.

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.

(Bonus point: Schlereth doesn’t suck as a broadcaster on ESPN.)

11. Glen Edwards, Safety

Glen Edwards and Warren Bankston — Pittsburgh Steelers safety Glen Edwards brings down Oakland Raiders wide receiver Warren Bankston in the 1976 AFC championship game in Oakland.

Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers, San Diego Chargers

Experience: 11 years (1971-81)

Pro Bowl appearances: Two (1975, 1976)

Super Bowl championships: Two (1974, 1975)

Bottom line: Few remember Glen Edwards as the fearless strong safety with the Steelers’ first two Super Bowl teams. Fewer yet realize that he made a crucial play in each victory.

In Super Bowl IX, Edwards killed a drive and darn near Vikings intended receiver John Gilliam on a hellacious hit near the goal line. On the final play a year later, he picked off a Roger Staubach pass in the end zone that put the Cowboys to rest.

"That was my territory," Edwards recalled in The Palm Beach Post. "No one was going to catch no ball."

And almost nobody remembers that, when Edwards caught the ball, he knew what to do it. Only a dozen players have more career interception return yards (961), and seven of them are in the Hall of Fame.

10. Derrick Mason, Wide Receiver

Teams: Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Houston Texans

Experience: 15 years (1997-2011)

Pro Bowl appearances: Two (2000, 2003)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: Derrick Mason was among the shrewdest, most precise route runners of his time. Then again, the fourth-round draft pick had no choice. At 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, he didn’t wow anyone physically. He lacked the straight-line speed to be a game-breaker.

What Mason did have was a keen attention to detail and fanatical drive to succeed. He routinely beat defenders with quickness out of his breaks and clever change-of-pace moves, qualities that also served him well as a punt returner.

Mason had seven seasons of at least 70 pass receptions, 1,000 yards and five touchdowns. His 2,690 all-purpose yards with the Titans in the 2000 season are second in league history.

Don’t know about you, but I want Mason on my retro fantasy league team.

9. John Brodie, Quarterback

Teams: San Francisco 49ers

Experience: 17 years (1957-73)

Pro Bowl appearances: Two (1965, 1970)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: OK, kids, let’s play Name That Hall of Famer.

Player A was a one-time Most Valuable Player who took part in four Pro Bowl games. Player B was a one-time MVP who played in two Pro Bowl games.

Player A passed for 27,928 yards and 194 touchdowns and ran for four touchdowns with mostly very good teams and one great one. Player B passed for 31,548 yards and 214 touchdowns and ran for 22 touchdowns with below average-to-good teams.

So who’s the Hall of Famer?

If you guessed both or neither one, you’re wrong. The correct answer is Player A (Ken Stabler), and if you’re Player B (Brodie), you have to wonder if one Super Bowl should make that much difference.

8. Wilber Marshall, Linebacker

Teams: Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, Houston Oilers, Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets

Experience: 12 years (1984-95)

Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1986, 1987, 1992)

Super Bowl championships: Two (1985, 1991)

Bottom line: Wilber Marshall was the most athletic and versatile linebacker with the legendary 1985 Bears defense — he often replaced the celebrated Mike Singletary in pass situations. Unlike many of Marshall's teammates, however, he wasn’t an obnoxious self-promoter, which partly explained his absence from the NFC Pro Bowl roster that season.

When Da Bears bean counters refused to pay up two years later, Marshall was the odd man out again. He headed to Washington and moved from the weak to strong side. There, he led a relentless Redskins pass rush in their Super Bowl XXVI ambush.

No matter. Marshall can’t get his name even on the preliminary Hall of Fame ballot.

"Hate to say it, but I do believe I should be there (in Canton)," Marshall once said. "I don’t get it."

Yeah, me, neither.

7. Ron McDole, Defensive End/Defensive Tackle

Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins

Experience: 18 years (1961-78)

Pro Bowl appearances (AFL All-Star Game): Two (1965, 1967)

AFL championships: 1965, 1966

Super Bowl championships: None

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. If ever a geezer was meant to play with George Allen’s Over The Hill Gang, he was the one.

Incredibly, McDole started 97 of the next 98 games. He didn’t just take up space, either. Pro Football Reference rates him at near a Pro Bowl level well into his 30s.

McDole was known as "The Dancing Bear" because of his nimble feet, one of the coolest nicknames ever. 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.

6. Matt Bahr, Kicker

Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots

Experience: 17 years (1979-95)

Pro Bowl appearances: None

Super Bowl championships: Two (1979, 1990)

Bottom line: Adam Vinatieri was money in the postseason, but Matt Bahr was even better.

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. Through the 2018 season, Vinatieri checked in at 81 (56 of 69) and 99 (70 of 71), respectively.

In two Super Bowl trips, Bahr didn’t miss a kick — three field goals, six PATs. His 42-yarder in the 1990 NFC championship game rates as one of the greatest clutch kicks in league history. He accounted for all his team’s points in a 15-13 white-knuckler that wrecked the 49ers’ three-peat bid and sent the Giants to Super Bowl XXV.

And to think, the guy never played in a Pro Bowl game.

5. Tobin Rote, Quarterback

Teams: Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, San Diego Chargers

Experience: 13 years (1950-59, 1963-64, 1966)

Pro Bowl appearances: One (1956)

AFL All-Star Game appearances: One (1963)

NFL championships: One (1957)

AFL championships: One (1963)

Bottom line: Never mind guys such as Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson. They didn’t do anything that Tobin Rote hadn’t done a long time ago.

Rote was the first quarterback who regularly beat defenses with his legs as well as his arm. 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. Overall, the total still ranks ninth at the position. He also scored 35 touchdowns on the ground in that span.

More than anything, though, Rote was a leader and winner. He’s the only quarterback with AFL and NFL titles on his resume — and he darn near pulled it off in the Canadian Football League as well.

Along with the legendary Johnny Unitas, Rote probably did more to change the quarterback position than anyone in the pre-merger era even if so few know it.

4. Ken Norton, Linebacker

Teams: Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers

Experience: 13 years 1988-2000

Pro Bowl appearances: Three (1993, 1995, 1997)

Super Bowl championships: Three (1992, 1993, 1994)

Bottom line: All Ken Norton could do was take down ballcarriers and collect Super Bowl rings. The linebacker ranks 17th in career solo tackles (1,130) and is the only player to be part of three consecutive Super Bowl champions.

Truth is, Norton should have been Super Bowl XXVII Most Valuable Player, not Troy Aikman, who was the obligatory quarterback pick.

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. After the Bills failed to score, he knocked quarterback Jim Kelly out of the game in the next series.

Or as astute NBC broadcaster Dick Enberg scored it, "KO for Ken Norton."

Oh, and Norton scored the final touchdown of the game on a 9-yard fumble return. The guy should demand a recount, I tell ya.

3. Jon Kolb, Offensive Tackle

Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers

Experience: 13 years (1969-81)

Pro Bowl appearances: None

Super Bowl championships: 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979

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? The only lineman to start all four of those games was a workout warrior and routinely bench-pressed 550 pounds in his prime.

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. The Steelers rushed for a then-record 249 yards and did not allow a sack.

Yet somehow, some way, Kolb never received a Pro Bowl invitation. How he slipped through the cracks for 13 years remains one of the unsolved mysteries in pro football.

2. Ken Riley, Cornerback

Teams: Cincinnati Bengals

Experience: 15 years (1969-83)

Pro Bowl appearances: One (1983)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: In his 15th and final season, the 36-year-old Ken Riley had eight interceptions and returned two of them for touchdowns, one of the most incredible performances by an old man ever. Finally, at last, the cornerback was selected to play in his first Pro Bowl game as some kind of lifetime achievement award.

If Mel Blount, Mike Haynes and teammate Lemar Parrish hadn’t been in the same conference, Riley would have made more a few more Pro Bowl trips. His 65 interceptions are fifth most in NFL history. He's also among the top 100 in games started (83rd), interception return yardage (89th) and interception return touchdowns (31st).

1. Fred Taylor, Running Back

Teams: Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots

Experience: 13 years (1998-2010)

Pro Bowl appearance: One (2007)

Super Bowl championships: None

Bottom line: Fred Taylor once tweeted, "I earned respect on the field. Numbers better than majority of RBs in history. Still don't understand why the writers don't respect it."

Actually, there’s a simple explanation. 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.

Taylor rushed for 1,000-plus yards in seven seasons. He’s 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. And he played in one stinking Pro Bowl game. As a 31-year-old, no less.

Pro Bowl? It’s a frigging joke that Taylor isn’t in the Hall of Fame discussion.