Tyronne Drakeford Madden Career 1995-2000 - Peak 91 OVR

Tyronne Drakeford was a second-round cornerback out of Virginia Tech, drafted by San Francisco in 1994, and he won a Super Bowl ring as a rookie on the XXIX team, about the best possible start to a career. He started at corner for the 49ers for four seasons, a fast, physical cover man on the back end of a champion.

Madden's grades for his 49ers years bounced the way corner ratings do, an 84 for his 1994 rookie season, an 89 for 1995, then a dip before the game settled on him. His actual peak, a 91, came for the 1998 season after he had left for New Orleans, the familiar pattern on this roster of a player's best Madden number arriving in another uniform. The 49ers developed him; the Saints got the highest grade.

Drakeford finished with 16 interceptions across an eight-year career that also took him to Washington and back to San Francisco for a final season in 2001. He was never a star, but he was a rookie champion and a multi-year starter at a hard position, which is a good career by any measure. Madden's numbers, high in spots and noisy in others, tracked a solid corner who did his best work young and got paid for it later.