Every NFL team's most overrated player of all time

Every NFL team’s most overrated player of all time

22 Oct 2000: Quarterback Steve Beuerlein #7 of the Carolina Panthers scrambles with the ball during the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers defeated the 49ers 34-16.Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport /

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Ray Lewis (52) of the Baltimore Ravens during an AFC playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland on January 13, 2007. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

Baltimore Ravens: Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis is one of the best linebackers of all time. Ray Lewis is also extremely overrated. If you look at his numbers, it feels as if near the end of the prime of his career, if he was so much as near a tackle, he was given partial credit for it.

Lewis was the best defender on the Ravens defense in 2000, the year in which they won the Super Bowl off the strength of their defense alone. In the twilight of his career, though, it was clear that he was no longer the same player he was a decade prior. That didn’t stop media members from stil treating him as if he was still one of the best in the game.

The Ravens Super Bowl run in 2012 was in large part because of the sudden surge of power in the right arm of Joe Flacco. It was known that Lewis planned to retire after the season, but the focus should have been on Flacco’s incredible postseason run, rather than the team rallying around Ray Lewis when in reality he wasn’t playing that great and missed a lot of time due to injury.

The stats say he had seven tackles in the Ravens Super Bowl victory over the 49ers — that’s a little generous.

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