Bruce Armstrong Madden Career 1992-2000 - Peak 97 OVR

For fourteen seasons, every one of them in New England, Bruce Armstrong was the constant on a franchise that changed almost everything else around him. The Patriots took the Louisville tackle 23rd overall in 1987, and by the time he was done in 2000 he had made six Pro Bowls (1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997), earned second-team All-Pro honors three times, and started 212 games. He blew out his knee in 1992, tearing multiple ligaments, and came back to play seven more years and make four more Pro Bowls.

He protected the edge through the lean years and the good ones, including the run to Super Bowl XXXI against Green Bay. New England retired his No. 78, one of a small handful of numbers the team has pulled from circulation, and later placed him in the Patriots Hall of Fame.

Madden's read on him came late and a little stingy. He sat at 74 in the 1996 edition, then, curiously, hit his high of 89 in the 2000 game, his 14th and final season, before an 85 in the 2001 edition closed the book on a career that outlasted nearly everyone he blocked for.