Kevin Smith CB - Cowboys Madden Career 1994-2000 - Peak 99 OVR

Kevin Smith was a consensus All-American at Texas A&M and a first-round pick, 17th overall, in 1992, and for a few years he was a very good cornerback on a championship defense, starting opposite Larry Brown and intercepting six passes as a rookie. He won three Super Bowls with Dallas before he turned 26, the whole of his career spent in one uniform.

Madden's grades for him carry the mid-90s Cowboys inflation. Smith shows a glitchy 99 in Madden NFL 94 for his 1993 season and a 98 the next year, numbers that overstate even a good young corner, with an obvious error card, a 27, mixed in. His truer grades settled into the 80s once the scale normalized, the read of a solid, athletic starter.

Then came the injury. Smith tore his Achilles tendon in the 1995 season opener, on a Monday night against the Giants, and was never the same explosive player again. He hung on for a few more years but the burst was gone, and he retired having spent his entire career in Dallas. Madden's inflated early grades caught him before the injury, when he looked like a potential star. The Achilles, not the ratings, wrote the ending.