Artie Smith Madden Career 1994-1999 - Peak 78 OVR

Artie Smith was a fifth-round defensive lineman out of Louisiana Tech, a 6-foot-5, 296-pounder who also threw the discus in college, and he began his career in San Francisco in 1993. He was a rotational lineman, the kind who plays a role in the trenches for a couple of years before moving on, and he did most of his work later with Cincinnati.

Madden's cards of him are the usual noisy set for a role player. His best number was a 78 for the 1994 season, propped up by a 99 awareness rating that looks like a data artifact, and the rest sat lower, the honest grades of a backup defensive end. The game had little to measure and it shows.

Smith finished with 4.5 sacks across 73 games for the 49ers, Bengals and Cowboys, a journeyman lineman who filled a rotation spot for six seasons. He was never a starter of note and never a name anyone remembers, just a big body who took some snaps up front. Madden rated him a backup, which is what he was.