Jeff Hartings Madden Career 1998-2007 - Peak 93 OVR

Detroit drafted Jeff Hartings 23rd overall in 1996 to play guard, and the Penn State product spent five seasons blocking for the tail end of Barry Sanders' career. Then Pittsburgh signed him in 2001 and asked him to snap the ball, a position he had never played. He became one of the best centers in football at it.

Anchoring the Steelers line, Hartings earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2001, made the Pro Bowl in 2004 and 2005, and was named first-team All-Pro in 2004. The payoff came in February 2006, when Pittsburgh beat Seattle in Super Bowl XL. Chronic knee trouble forced him to retire after the following season, his body worn down from a decade in the trenches.

Madden charted the transformation cleanly. He sat in the low 70s through his Detroit years, opening the 2000 edition at 73, then leapt to 87 in the 2002 edition once the Steelers move clicked. He held a 93 in both the 2005 and 2006 editions, the ratings finally catching up to a lineman who mastered a brand new job in his late twenties.