Eric Swann Madden Career 1993-2000 - Peak 95 OVR
Eric Swann Madden NFL 2000 rating

Eric Swann Madden Career 1993-2000 - Peak 95 OVR

Position
DT
Team
Cardinals
Height
6'5"
Weight
307
College
Wake Technical CC
DOB
Aug 16, 1970
Madden
1992-1999
95OVR
1999 Current
95OVR
Peak 1999
8
Seasons Played

From $5-an-hour semi-pro ball to the sixth pick in the draft

Eric Swann is one of the strangest draft stories the NFL has produced. Ruled academically ineligible to play at North Carolina State, he ended up with the semi-pro Bay State Titans in Lynn, Massachusetts, earning five dollars an hour while scouts tried to figure out what to make of a man with no college tape. The Phoenix Cardinals bet the sixth overall pick on him in 1991.

The gamble paid off. Swann became a disruptive interior force, strong enough to collapse a pocket and quick enough to chase down ballcarriers, and he made the NFC Pro Bowl in both 1995 and 1996 with first-team All-Pro recognition to match. Madden charted the growth plainly, a 64 in the 1996 edition that had risen to a 90 by the 2000 game near the height of his powers.

He spent nine seasons in Arizona and finished with a year in Carolina in 2000. In 1998 he was inducted into the Semi Pro Football Hall of Fame, a nod to the unlikely road he traveled.

Eric Swann Madden Career Milestones

  • Peak rating: 95 OVR (calculated) in Madden NFL 2000
  • Appeared in 8 Madden releases (Madden NFL 1993 through Madden NFL 2000)
  • Biggest single-year rise: 62 points into Madden NFL 1994
  • Played for the Cardinals across every Madden release in his career
  • Listed as a defensive lineman in every Madden release
  • Final Madden appearance: Madden NFL 2000 at 95 OVR

Eric Swann Madden Career Ratings

Scale (starred* rows) Only the starred 1-15-era seasons convert; modern rows stay 0-99.
Madden Team Pos OVR Speed ACC AGI STR JMP STA INJ AWR CAR BTK CTH TAK PUR
1993 *
1992 NFL season
 Cardinals LDE/LDT - 46 - 40 - - - - - - - - 13 -
1994 *
1993 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 62* 66 - 59 - - - - - - - - 59 -
1995 *
1994 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 86* 58 - 43 - - - - 29 - - - 82 90
1996 *
1995 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 76* 66 - 59 - - - - 59 - - 40 79 73
1997
1996 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 64 42 28 49 - 60 61 - 63 7 22 18 66 -
1998 *
1997 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 66* 66 - 66 - - - - - - - - 40 -
1999
1998 NFL season
 Cardinals LDT 88* 51 64 69 87 - - 9 90 7 16 9 87 -
2000
1999 NFL season
 Cardinals DT 95* 56 67 67 94 - - 62 95 24 26 19 96 -
How to read these: Each row is the player’s rating in that year’s Madden, listed by the NFL season it covers (Madden NFL 2001 = the 2000 season). Madden sets its ratings before the season is played, so they reflect the previous season’s performance - a player’s breakout year tends to show up as a jump in the following year’s game.
About the starred rows*: Several early Madden releases rated players on a 1-15 scale, as printed in the game manuals, rather than the modern 0-99. We store those ratings converted to 0-99 (each manual point is about 6.6) so you can compare players across eras at a glance - use the 0-99 / 1-15 toggle above the table to see the original numbers on those seasons. EA didn’t publish an overall rating in those games, so the OVR* values for those years are our own calculation, the average of the player’s two best ratings.
Note: Some Madden releases tracked fewer attributes than others. Cells shown as - were not published by EA that year.

Era Defensive Linemen who played alongside Eric Swann

Michael Strahan Madden ratings
Michael Strahan
Madden NFL 1995-2009
99
 Warren Sapp Madden ratings
Warren Sapp
Madden NFL 1996-2008 - Raiders
99
 Wayne Martin Madden ratings
Wayne Martin
Madden NFL 1992-2000 - Saints
99
 Jamal Williams Madden ratings
Jamal Williams
Madden NFL 1999-2011 - Broncos
98
 Jason Taylor Madden ratings
Jason Taylor
Madden NFL 1999-2009
98
 La'Roi Glover Madden ratings
La'Roi Glover
Madden NFL 1998-2009 - Rams
97
 Simeon Rice Madden ratings
Simeon Rice
Madden NFL 1997-2009
97
 Hugh Douglas Madden ratings
Hugh Douglas
Madden NFL 1996-2006
97

Eric Swann Madden Ratings by Year

Eric Swann Madden NFL 1993 rating: rated (1992 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1994 rating: 62 OVR (1993 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1995 rating: 86 OVR (1994 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1996 rating: 76 OVR (1995 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1997 rating: 64 OVR (1996 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1998 rating: 66 OVR (1997 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 1999 rating: 88 OVR (1998 NFL season, ARI). Eric Swann Madden NFL 2000 rating: 95 OVR (1999 NFL season, ARI).