Rod Milstead Madden Career 1998-2000 - Peak 76 OVR

Rod Milstead was a fifth-round guard out of Delaware State, drafted by Dallas in 1992, who found a home in San Francisco for four seasons in the mid-1990s. He won a Super Bowl ring on the 1994 team as a backup interior lineman, a body a line needs in reserve, and started when injuries opened a spot.

Madden's grades track him as exactly that. His numbers sat in the low 50s during his 49ers years, rising to a peak of 76 later with Washington once he was starting more regularly, the standard pattern of an interior lineman rated by his role rather than his talent. The game had little to go on until he was on the field.

Milstead played 56 games across a career with the Cowboys, Browns, 49ers, Washington and Broncos, then went into coaching, eventually becoming the head coach at his alma mater, Delaware State. He was a journeyman backup with a ring, and later a man who gave back to the small program that made him. Madden's modest grades are the record of the player; the coaching is the better part of the story.