Ray Brown Madden Career 1994-2006 - Peak 92 OVR

Ray Brown played twenty years in the NFL and started at guard past his 43rd birthday, which makes him one of the most durable linemen the league has ever seen. An eighth-round pick out of Arkansas State in 1986, he did not even reach San Francisco until 1996, by which point he was already a decade into a career that would not end until 2006.

Madden's 49ers cards of him are the numbers of a good veteran holding his level deep into his thirties. The game rated Brown an 85 for the 1999 season and kept him in the 70s and 80s through six years in San Francisco, sturdy grades for a lineman most players his age had long since retired past. The strength and awareness ratings stayed high because the things that made Brown useful, technique and toughness, do not fade the way speed does.

He made a Pro Bowl in 2001 at the age of 40, among the oldest players ever selected, and finally retired at 43 before coaching offensive lines himself. Brown started for the Cardinals, Redskins, 49ers and Lions across those two decades, never a star and always a starter. Madden rated him a steady contributor for as long as he played, which was longer than almost anyone, the rare grade that simply refused to decline.