Gary Plummer Madden Career 1992-1998 - Peak 95 OVR

Gary Plummer took the long way in, starting his pro career in the USFL with the Oakland Invaders before catching on with the Chargers, and he did not reach San Francisco until 1994, already a 34-year-old veteran. He came over from San Diego and promptly beat his old team in Super Bowl XXIX, having left the Chargers just before their own Super Bowl run, a bit of timing only a well-traveled linebacker could appreciate.

Madden liked him more than his reputation did. The game rated Plummer a 92 for the 1993 season and a 95 for 1994, high numbers for a run-thumping inside linebacker whose value was more about leadership and sure tackling than splash, and the grades cooled to the 60s in his last 49ers years as age caught up. The peak was generous; Plummer was a good starter, not a great one, but he was the veteran signal-caller a young defense needed.

He piled up more than a thousand tackles across a career spanning three leagues and finished it in San Francisco, retiring after 1997 and moving into the radio booth as the team's color analyst for more than a decade. Plummer was a smart, durable veteran every champion carries, and for one season the game rated him a 95, which he probably enjoyed more than he let on.