Taco Charlton Madden Career 2018-2021 - Peak 77 OVR

Taco Charlton was a first-team All-Big Ten edge rusher at Michigan, a first-round pick Dallas took 28th in 2017 expecting a pass rusher to complement the front. It never happened, and his Cowboys career became one of the shortest for a first-round pick in franchise history, a disappointment measured against the slot that drafted him.

The Madden card never climbed, and that flatness is the story. It peaked at just a 77 in Madden NFL 19 and otherwise hovered in the mid-70s, the grade of a rusher whose production, three sacks as a rookie and one the next year, gave the number no reason to move. Dallas released him early in the 2019 season, cutting bait on a first-rounder barely two years in.

He salvaged a bit in Miami, five sacks in a partial season, then bounced through Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Chicago and into the UFL, finishing with 11.5 career sacks that never justified the pick. Charlton is a clean cautionary tale about drafting edge rushers in the first round, a talented player who could not find the production. The flat mid-70s card is the honest, unflattering read on billing the play never came close to matching.