Derrick Deese Madden Career 1996-2005 - Peak 89 OVR

Derrick Deese went undrafted out of USC in 1992 and turned a tryout into a twelve-year starting career, which is about as good an outcome as the bottom of the roster ever produces. He began as a guard, moved to left tackle, and ended up protecting the blind side in San Francisco for more than a decade, winning a Super Bowl ring on the 1994 team along the way.

Madden's grades tell the standard undrafted-lineman story, low at first and rising with the role. Deese was a 54 in his early cards, a fringe player the game barely rated, before climbing steadily as he locked down the left tackle job, into the 80s by the turn of the decade and peaking at an 89 for the 2003 season, his last big year in San Francisco. The number grew as the responsibility did, from spare part to franchise blind-side protector.

Deese started 132 games across twelve years with the 49ers, then finished with two seasons in Tampa Bay before retiring after 2005. He was never a Pro Bowler, but he was just the find that keeps a line together for years, an undrafted athlete who outlasted a parade of higher picks. Madden's arc for him, a 54 to an 89, is the quiet climb of a player who was never given anything and started for a decade anyway.