The Actually Underrated Team, Offense: Which NFL players didn't get their due?

USA Today

2 days ago

Everyone has a player they think is underrated, but who is 'Actually Underrated?'
What does it mean to be underrated? To not be talked about on ESPN's morning shows? To not earn a trip to the Pro Bowl? To get overlooked on the All-Pro team the Associated Press puts out each year? Is it even possible to underrate a former top-five draft pick? Ask any New Orleans Saints fan who the most underrated wide receiver in NFL history is, and they'll tell you Marques Colston, the seventh-round pick from a small school who caught 711 passes but was never selected for the Pro Bowl. So we set out to make our picks for who should join him on the "Actually Underrated Team."
Everyone has their own criteria, but for this project we limited them to two benchmarks. For one thing, players must have logged at least 128 games in the NFL; that's equivalent to eight 16-game seasons (which was the norm until 2021), or one standard four-year rookie contract and another four-year extension. For the next point, qualifiers must have been selected for no more than two Pro Bowls in their careers. And for one more, we're trying to emphasize guys who weren't drafted early in the first round, but that's kind of a case-by-case basis.
On top of that, we limited our scope to 2002 to 2024. That's when the league expanded to 32 teams with the conference-division format we know today. Sure, it wipes out a lot of talented players from further back in NFL history. But it also means there are more recognizable names on our list. There are writers on our masthead who weren't alive in 2001. We'll call it a modern-era "Actually Underrated Team" and maybe take time to highlight players from previous years another time.
That's enough table-setting. Let's get to it and break down the picks for "Actually Underrated" offense.
Quarterback
First team: Ryan Fitzpatrick
Second team: Ryan Tannehill
Fitzpatrick arguably has the strongest case. Everyone else was drafted in the first round. He was a seventh-round draft who didn't start in Week 1 until 2011, his seventh year in the league. His gutsy, physical play style and aggressive downfield throwing made for some fun games with the Buffalo Bills back in the early 2010's. He was never put up there with the best quarterbacks in the game, or expected to be, but he held his own when he was given a chance. His 223 touchdown passes and 34,990 passing yards both rank top-40 all-time.
Tannehill is a funny case. His numbers on paper are very solid: 34,881 passing yards (36th-most), 216 touchdown passes (41st), and a record of 81-70 as a starter. But he's never been seen as the engine running his offense, even with being a former No. 8 overall pick. Still, he did well for himself, and his career is one many quarterbacks would feel proud of, despite the lack of all-star recognition.
You could make a strong case that Matthew Stafford should've been the choice here (and he was, in the first draft). He's certainly been the most successful of this group. But come on -- he was a first overall draft pick and, if anything, he's met expectations. He's finally been recognized as one of the 10 best quarterbacks in football year in, year out. His career got off to a rocky start with a series of injuries, but these days his perception is probably right where it belongs.
Running backs
First team: LeGarrette Blount
Second team: Michael Turner
Not many undrafted running backs had the career Blount achieved; while he suited up for six different teams after entering the league as a rookie free agent, Blount ended up rushing for 6,306 yards and 56 touchdowns across 132 games, but he was never recognized as a Pro Bowler. Not even when he led the league with 18 touchdown runs in 2016. His three Super Bowl rings probably make up for that slight, but when he was at his best he was a bruising opponent who nobody wanted to tackle.
It was really, really hard to choose between Turner and Latavius Murray for that other spot. Turner was a fifth-round pick who was twice picked as a Pro Bowler, and once as an All-Pro; Murray was a sixth rounder who was chosen for the Pro Bowl in his sophomore year. And he's played in a full 17-game season's worth of games more than Turner did. But we had to go with the more-productive player. Miscast as a change-of-pace back behind LaDainian Tomlinson on the San Diego Chargers, Turner didn't really come into his own until he joined the Atlanta Falcons, where he twice led the league in rushing attempts and scored 60 touchdowns in five years.
We also considered a handful of other deserving running backs who were eliminated for their draft status. First-round picks like Thomas Jones, Matt Forte, Willis McGahee, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart (and, yes, Reggie Bush) maybe didn't get their due credit, but they played under a brighter spotlight, too. Expectations are different for first rounders than fifth- or sixth-round picks, and we're trying to reflect that.
Wide receiver
First team: Marques Colston and Adam Thielen
Second team: Derrick Mason, Julian Edelman, and Pierre Garcon
This was a very tough group to whittle down. We tried to eliminate early draft picks like Santana Moss, Brandin Cooks, and Michael Crabtree, but we also had to write off some late-round guys we liked a lot, like T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Nate Washington, on account of not being productive enough. Second- and third-round picks like Tyler Lockett and Golden Tate flirted with being too high-profile, too.
Colston and Thielen stand above the rest given the tough roads they took to the NFL. Colston was nearly Mr. Irrelevant, and he came from a school that no longer has a football program. He was known for taking big hits and playing through injuries (remember that time he bounced back from a broken collarbone in just two weeks?), and hardly ever speaking a word. That quiet demeanor may have kept him under the national radar despite his 9,759 yards and 72 touchdown catches, but it endeared him to Saints fans. Thielen is an NFL success story, too, having played college ball at Minnesota State and tried out for the Vikings as, essentially, a walk-on rookie free agent. He's 11 years into his career and still playing well.
Mason entered the league as a fourth-round pick by the Tennessee Oilers back in 1997, and the longevity of his career speaks for itself: 15 years, 12,061 yards, and 645 first down conversions. He was recognized as a Pro Bowler only twice, and once as an All-Pro. Edelman went from being a quarterback at Kent State to a seventh-round draft pick with the Patriots to moonlighting at defensive back to becoming a three-time Super Bowl champion wide receiver, all while fielding punts and kickoffs in the return game. Garcon, a sixth-round pick out of small-school Mount Union in Ohio, was a dependable target for Peyton Manning early in his career on the Indianapolis Colts before being asked to step into a larger role at Washington; he led the league with 113 catches in 2013.
Tight end
First team: Ben Watson
Second team: Marcedes Lewis
We're breaking our own rule here to highlight a couple of exemplary tight ends, even if they were both first-round picks. Watson had a really impressive career, alternately playing the role of a blocking tight end, a leading target in the pass game, and a veteran mentor for younger players while putting up some wild highlights as a tackler. He appeared in 205 games, starting 143 of them, during his 15-year run in the NFL. That more than exceeds the expectations for a former 32nd overall draft pick.
Then you've got Lewis, whose numbers boggle the mind. The former 28th overall pick hopes to sign with a team and play out his 20th season in the NFL before calling it a career; he's already suited up for 285 of them, the most among all active players, with 229 starts. He's been known more for his blocking than his receiving skills though he did catch double-digit touchdowns with the Jacksonville Jaguars back in 2010, leading to his first and only Pro Bowl. He's one of a kind.
Also considered: Dallas Clark, another former first rounder. His production as a receiver was seen as an anomaly in his day, but really he was helping to blaze a trail for guys like Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski (and eventually George Kittle and Travis Kelce) to follow. His 11-year career is impressive, and his 53 touchdown catches are more than both Watson and Lewis. Owen Daniels (a fourth-round pick who started 125 of his 131 games) deserves a mention here. So does Jared Cook (a third rounder who put up 7,237 yards), but Saints fans might boycott us if we spoke too kindly of him.
Left tackle
First team: Jeff Backus
Second team: David Diehl
We're breaking our own rule again to highlight Backus, but it's worth it. There were times where he was playing like the best left tackle in the NFL. There were years he probably should've moved inside to guard. But he more than met expectations as a former first-round pick. After starting for Michigan as a freshman in 1997, he was fortunate to stay in-state as a pro and didn't miss a start in 191 games for Detroit, retiring on his own terms after a dozen years in the NFL.
Diehl did really well for himself as a former fifth-round pick; he won the New York Giants' starting job at left tackle in his second season and held onto it for several years before he was asked to move around, splitting time at both guard spots and right tackle. He started 160 of his 164 games in the NFL, all with New York, and he won a pair of Super Bowl titles, too. He was a key piece of those Giants teams everyone wrote off before they played a single snap.
Left guard
First team: Ramon Foster
Second team: Andy Levitre
How about Foster? He was overlooked in the 2009 draft and had to sign with the Steelers as a rookie free agent, but he made the most of that opportunity and earned a spot in the starting lineup within just a few years. He ended up being a dependable part of Pittsburgh's front five and ultimately appeared in 160 games with the Steelers. He also started all 11 playoff games he suited up for. All told, Foster spent 7,769 of his 10,288 career snaps at left guard wearing black and yellow.
Levitre moved around the NFL a bit after the Buffalo Bills drafted him in the second round, but every team he ended up on reached the same conclusion: he needed to be a starter. Both the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons trusted Levitre to start guard, and though injuries cut his career shorter than it ought to have been, he still did really well for himself with over 9,000 snaps played. He was a key part of some fun Bills teams back in the day and more than held his own for some of the greatest Falcons teams of all time (and Atlanta still didn't win a Super Bowl). At some point he should've been a Pro Bowler.
Center
First team: Dominic Raiola
Second team: Brad Meester
Love him (for his grit and transparency with the media) or hate him (for his dirty hits and confrontations with heckling fans), Raiola was a key piece of the Detroit Lions for a very long time. The former second-round pick rarely missed a snap in his 219-game career, even while playing for some of the worst teams in NFL history, and he did his part to make sure the Lions weren't a team others should look down on. That got him in trouble at times, sure, and it probably didn't help his case when it came time to vote for things like Pro Bowls. But it certainly made an impression and he should've been highlighted more often.
Another second rounder, Meester also spent his entire career with one team and rode the highs and lows of the early days of Jacksonville Jaguars football. When he hung up his cleats, he owned Jacksonville records for seasons (14) and games played (209). That's a career anyone would be proud of. He was also one of the highest-drafted players out of Northern Iowa until the Saints picked Trevor Penning in 2022's first round.
We also considered Todd McClure, who was the 237th pick in the 1999 draft (out of LSU) who started 195 of his 198 games with the Atlanta Falcons. You hate to give the dirty birds too much credit, but they got this pick right, and McClure was a challenging opponent for many years. He was eventually added to Atlanta's Ring of Honor, but he never was highlighted with a Pro Bowl or All-Pro nod.
Right guard
First team: Roberto Garza
Second team: Kevin Zeitler
Garza was in and out of the lineup through his first four years with the Atlanta Falcons; when he moved on to join the Chicago Bears in 2005, he quickly earned a spot in the starting lineup. He started games at left guard and spent a lot of time at right guard before moving to center later in his career; Pro Football Focus charting found that he logged more snaps at right guard (4,965) than center (3,870) with Chicago, so we put him there for this project.
At one time Zeitler was the highest-paid guard in the NFL, which feels like a nice consolation prize for being recognized at just one Pro Bowl in his 13-year career. Zeitler is on to his sixth team in his 198-game career. But he was picked in the first round, so we're putting him behind Garza, who was a fourth rounder when he entered the league.
Right tackle
First team: Kareem McKenzie
Second team: Kelvin Beachum
How many guys can they spent all 161 games playing for two different teams in the same city? McKenzie was a third-round pick by the New York Jets in 2001, but he went across town to sign with the New York Giants and ended up winning two Super Bowls there. He did a great job protecting Eli Manning all those years and anchoring the right side of the line. The way some Giants fans tell it, their team never did get around to replacing him at right tackle.
Here's another late-round long-shot to close us out. Beachum was a four-year starter at SMU but almost wasn't drafted at all in 2012, with the Steelers finally calling his name with the 248th overall pick. He rewarded them by playing well at both tackle spots whenever they needed him, though he really came into his own at left tackle with the Jets a few years later. He's since moved to right tackle full-time with the Arizona Cardinals and has proven himself to be an asset on Kyler Murray's offensive line.