If you are getting your fantasy football team together right now, there’s no doubt you’re trying to find that one player that is going to fly under the radar and rack up tons of points for you. Looking back through NFL history, you can find some players that never got the attention they deserve for every year of the league’s existence.
Why one player gets all the glory and another becomes a footnote is a mystery, but it does happen. And it’s nice to think back on those players. But, let’s pay them their due now by acknowledging their accomplishments. Whether we are talking about quarterbacks or tight ends, there are always going to be some that fly under the radar.
Now, other fans can also get a glimpse of what these players did and hopefully pay more attention to some of the underdogs in the league right now as a result. That way, when you are looking over the Fantasy Football Rankings you might just find one that could be the next underrated player people are talking about years from now!
Stephen Jackson
This running back never won a Super Bowl, and isn’t even a candidate for the NFL Hall of Fame. Yet, if you had him on your fantasy football lineup, you surely remember him fondly.
Playing for the St Louis Rams, he unfortunately had some bad timing as the team was in total disarray during his most productive years. In 2006 he ran 1,528 yards, had 90 receptions, and 16 total touchdowns. He never set the world on fire but was good for a few 1,000 plus yard seasons and could have done wonders with a good team or good coach.
He was traded to the Falcons but faced the same fate there as he did with the Rams.
Lomas Brown
It’s no surprise that not many people have heard of this left tackle. After all, he played for the dreadful Detroit Lions of the 1990s. Not only that, but offensive linemen rarely get much of a spotlight.
In his time with the Lions, he helped Barry Sanders with a couple of rushing titles. Without Brown opening up lanes for him, who knows if Sanders would have been as good as he is known to have been.
And if the Lions had been better coached and managed maybe they could have won a berth or two at the Super Bowl which surely would have given him more of a spotlight.
Neal Anderson
Imagine being a running back and having to replace the Bears’ Walter Payton. Nobody would come close to filling his cleats which means that even when putting up the kind of numbers Neal Anderson did, he was destined to become somewhat forgettable.
However, he was able to put together a number of 1,000 yard seasons without much attention being brought on himself. He could be counted on to make 40 to 50 catches per season and the quarterbacks at the time were Jim Harbaugh and Mike Tomczak. With a world class quarterback like Steve Young or Troy Aikman who were in their peak at the time, he could have ended up with a Hall of Fame career.