Kevin Hardy Madden Career 1997-2005 - Peak 87 OVR
Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2005 rating

Kevin Hardy Madden Career 1997-2005 - Peak 87 OVR

Position
LLB
Team
Jaguars
Height
6'4"
Weight
259
College
Illinois
DOB
Jul 24, 1973
Madden
1996-2004
87OVR
2004 Current
87OVR
Peak 2004
8
Seasons Played

Butkus winner who became Jacksonville's first great linebacker

Kevin Hardy won the Butkus Award at Illinois in 1995 as the nation's best linebacker, and the young Jacksonville Jaguars made him the second overall pick in the 1996 draft. He grew into the centerpiece of the defense that carried Jacksonville to a 14-2 record and the AFC Championship Game in 1999, the season he earned his lone Pro Bowl nod.

Hardy paired range with pass-rush pop, finishing with more than 30 career sacks along with interceptions and forced fumbles from the linebacker spot. After six seasons in Jacksonville he moved on to Dallas from 2002 to 2003 and then Cincinnati through 2005, a durable and productive run rather than a flashy one.

The Madden file captures both the stumble and the peak. He shows up as a startling 48 in the 1996 edition, the rating of an unproven rookie, before the game caught up to what he became: an 89 in the 2000 edition after that Pro Bowl year. It slid to 73 by the 2002 edition amid the move to Dallas, then bounced back to 87 in both the 2004 and 2005 editions.

Kevin Hardy Madden Career Milestones

  • Peak rating: 87 OVR in Madden NFL 2005 (age 31)
  • Appeared in 8 Madden releases (Madden NFL 1997 through Madden NFL 2005)
  • Entered at 48 OVR in Madden NFL 1997, climbed 39 points to his peak
  • Biggest single-year rise: 85 points into Madden NFL 2002
  • Played for 3 franchises: Jaguars, Cowboys, Bengals
  • Final Madden appearance: Madden NFL 2005 at 87 OVR

Kevin Hardy Madden Career Ratings

Scale (starred* rows) Only the starred 1-15-era seasons convert; modern rows stay 0-99.
Madden Team Pos OVR Speed ACC AGI STR JMP STA INJ TGH AWR THP TAS TAM TAD CAR BTK CTH RBK PBK TAK KPW KAC KRN
1997
1996 NFL season
 Jaguars RLB 48 64 43 63 - 94 63 - - 48 - - - - 19 10 25 - - 46 - - -
1998 *
1997 NFL season
 Jaguars LLB - 79 - 73 - - - - - 79 - - - - - - 79 - - 33 - - -
1999
1998 NFL season
 Jaguars RLB - 80 67 75 76 - - 9 - 81 - - - - 19 19 21 - - 89 - - -
2000
1999 NFL season
 Jaguars RLB - 64 64 71 71 - - 93 - 80 - - - - 29 29 34 - - 85 - - -
2002
2001 NFL season
 Jaguars LLB 85 80 75 74 72 65 93 86 89 85 19 11 11 11 30 - 50 9 10 85 26 19 -
2003
2002 NFL season
 Cowboys LLB 73 72 72 66 72 65 89 79 89 - 23 - - - 33 - 51 16 15 80 30 23 -
2004
2003 NFL season
 Bengals MLB 80 74 75 69 74 65 89 79 89 84 23 16 16 16 33 - 53 16 15 84 30 23 0
2005
2004 NFL season
 Bengals LLB 87 74 76 69 80 65 89 79 89 89 23 - - - 33 - 53 46 15 90 30 23 -
How to read these: Each row is the player’s rating in that year’s Madden, listed by the NFL season it covers (Madden NFL 2001 = the 2000 season). Madden sets its ratings before the season is played, so they reflect the previous season’s performance - a player’s breakout year tends to show up as a jump in the following year’s game.
About the starred rows*: Several early Madden releases rated players on a 1-15 scale, as printed in the game manuals, rather than the modern 0-99. We store those ratings converted to 0-99 (each manual point is about 6.6) so you can compare players across eras at a glance - use the 0-99 / 1-15 toggle above the table to see the original numbers on those seasons. EA didn’t publish an overall rating in those games, so the OVR* values for those years are our own calculation, the average of the player’s two best ratings.
Note: Some Madden releases tracked fewer attributes than others. Cells shown as - were not published by EA that year.

Kevin Hardy Madden Ratings by Year

Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 1997 rating: 48 OVR (1996 NFL season, JAX). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 1998 rating: rated (1997 NFL season, JAX). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 1999 rating: rated (1998 NFL season, JAX). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2000 rating: rated (1999 NFL season, JAX). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2002 rating: 85 OVR (2001 NFL season, JAX). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2003 rating: 73 OVR (2002 NFL season, DAL). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2004 rating: 80 OVR (2003 NFL season, CIN). Kevin Hardy Madden NFL 2005 rating: 87 OVR (2004 NFL season, CIN).