Green Bay Packers: 10 Nationally underrated players of the 2000s

5. Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila

This is one of the most obvious entries on the list.

Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila played for the Green Bay Packers his entire nine-year NFL career. In that time, the defensive end racked up 74.5 sacks. This included two top-five and another top-10 finish in the league. 2001 he ranked fourth in the NFL with 13.5 sacks. Then in 2002, he finished with 12, ranking sixth. Finally, in 2004, Gbaja-Biamila picked up 13.5 sacks again, this time finishing third in the NFL.

Gbaja-Biamila reached double-digit sacks one other time in his career, 2003. That was also his lone Pro-Bowl nod. He was still effective in sub-double-digit sack seasons however. He had a season of eight sacks and a season of 9.5 as well.

Despite picking up those 74.5 sacks and 17 forced fumbles in his career, Gbaja-Biamila doesn’t have a lot of hardware. The 2003 Pro-Bowl selection is the only honor in his NFL career outside of a 2004 NFC defensive player of the week award in week 17.

Sure, once again you could argue that Gbaja-Biamila had some tough competition. I mean we’re talking peak Michael Strahan and Jason Taylor here. However, that kind of goes out the window when you see his numbers. How someone was top-four and top-three in the entire NFL in sacks in a season and didn’t get any honors for it is incredible. He was snubbed for All-Pro teams and the Pro-Bowl.

What’s worse is over the years he’s become a forgotten man outside of the Green Bay fanbase. Younger generations will hear about a lot of the greats from that time, but someone who was dominant for a four-year stretch like Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila was is never mentioned. It’s a sad truth, but goes to show how underrated he truly was.