Top 10 NFL Players Teams Gave Up On Too Soon
By Erik Lambert
#5: James Lofton
During the 1980s he was one of the best vertical threat wide receivers in football. For the Green Bay Packers, James Lofton reached 22 yards per catch twice and reached the Pro Bowl seven times. He helped them to the playoffs in 1982 where he put up 168 yards and two TDs in two games. Yet by 1987 the team felt he was on the downside of his career at age 31. So they allowed him to leave. Lofton spent two years in Los Angeles with the Raiders but couldn’t stick there either.
So in 1989 he made one last go of it with the Buffalo Bills. It was there people saw he still had plenty of gas in the tank. Lofton helped them to reach the Super Bowl three-straight seasons from 1990 to 1992 and made his eighth Pro Bowl in ’91 at the age of 35. It was proof that perhaps he was never the problem in Green Bay or L.A. but perhaps the quarterbacks were. He retired with over 14,000 yards in his career and was later elected into the Hall of Fame.
Next: #4