Ray Donaldson Madden Career 1992-1997 - Peak 87 OVR

Ray Donaldson snapped the ball in the NFL for seventeen seasons, an ironman center out of Georgia who anchored offensive lines across three decades. A second-round pick of the Colts in 1980, he spent most of his career in Baltimore and then Indianapolis, making six Pro Bowls and stringing together long streaks of consecutive starts, the model of durability at a position that demands it.

Madden caught only the late chapters. His grades climb across a handful of cards, peaking at an 87 in Madden NFL 97 for the 1996 season with Dallas, as the game slowly recognized the veteran anchoring the Cowboys line, though his prime Pro Bowl years in Indianapolis came before the ratings tables began.

Donaldson joined Dallas in 1995 to snap for a championship team, and there is a poignant footnote to it: he broke his ankle late in the 1995 season and watched Super Bowl XXX from injured reserve, so close to a ring after all those years and unable to be on the field for it. He retired after 1996 having played more than 240 games. Madden's 87 marks the tail of a long, excellent career, a durable, multi-Pro-Bowl center who did the least-noticed job on the field longer than almost anyone.