Billy Davis Madden Career 1996-2000 - Peak 82 OVR

Billy Davis left Pittsburgh third on the school's all-time receiving list, then went undrafted in 1995 and built a six-year NFL career on the part of the game that keeps undrafted receivers employed, special teams. He signed with Dallas as a rookie and made his living flying down the field on coverage units, a career-high twenty-one special-teams tackles in one season, the receiving work a bonus rather than the job.

The Madden cards read like a special-teamer's, all over the place. He opens at an 82 in Madden NFL 96 on a 79 speed rating that reflects the athlete, drops to a card-glitch 31, then climbs back to an 80 peak in Madden NFL 99 built on 78 speed and 82 agility, about right for a fast depth receiver. His one genuinely productive season came in 1998, thirty-nine catches for 691 yards, the year the offense actually leaned on him.

Davis is a two-time champion, and he earned the rings in two different cities, Super Bowl XXX with the 1995 Cowboys and Super Bowl XXXV with the 2000 Ravens, both times as a coverage-unit regular rather than a starter. He finished with fifty-one catches for 907 yards across ninety-three games. The card's peaks and crashes are the shape of a role player whose real value never showed up in a receiving line.