Eric Davis Madden Career 1992-2000 - Peak 96 OVR

Eric Davis came out of Jacksonville State, a small school in Alabama, as a second-round pick in 1990, and made his name on a single January afternoon. On the third play from scrimmage in the NFC Championship Game following the 1994 season, Davis jumped a Troy Aikman throw and returned it for a touchdown, then forced a Michael Irvin fumble, and San Francisco finally broke Dallas's grip on the conference on the way to winning Super Bowl XXIX.

Madden rewarded the breakout at once. Davis had bounced between a 79, a 56 and a 73 in his first three cards, the grade unsure what it had, before spiking to a 96 in Madden NFL '95 for that 1994 season, the year he turned into a shutdown corner in the biggest game of the year. It was an earned number, one that tracked his standing rather than getting ahead of it.

Davis parlayed it into a long, well-paid career. He left for Carolina in 1996 and made a second straight Pro Bowl there, having made his first with the 49ers for the 1995 season, and he was a first-team All-Pro along the way. He played thirteen seasons in all, for the 49ers, Panthers, Broncos and Lions, and finished with 38 interceptions. The pick-six against Dallas is the one they still show, the moment a small-school corner became, for one season and one 96-rated card, exactly as good as the game said he was.