Merton Hanks Madden Career 1992-1999 - Peak 91 OVR

Iowa sent Merton Hanks to the NFL as a fifth-round pick in 1991, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound safety who looked too thin to hold up. For three years Madden agreed. It rated him a 59 as a rookie with an awareness of zero, then 53 and 53 as he sat behind the veterans, a backup the game had no reason to notice. He intercepted no passes in 1991 and two in 1992.

Then the production jumped and the grade chased it. Hanks picked off three passes in 1993 and seven in 1994, the year San Francisco beat Dallas for the NFC title and routed San Diego in Super Bowl XXIX. Madden '95, built off that season, moved him from a 53 to a 90 with 90 speed in a single release, one of the sharpest year-over-year corrections on any card. He held an 89 the year after.

The game did lose the thread once more. For the 1996 season Madden '97 knocked him back to a 61 even as he made his third straight Pro Bowl, a blip it undid the next year with a return to 89. Hanks made four consecutive Pro Bowls from 1994 through 1997 and first-team All-Pro in 1995, and grew into one of the league's more recognizable players for the bobbing-neck celebration he called the funky chicken. His grade peaked at 91 for the 1998 season in Madden '99. San Francisco moved on after that year, and he finished with two interceptions in twelve games for Seattle in 1999, 33 interceptions in all.