- Evan K
Madden 21 Ratings… Boom or Bust
The hype for Madden 21 is rising, each year the game gives fans a great opportunity to hit the gridiron and prove their skills on the sticks. Maybe due to the current situation the U.S. is in, or just the general lack of sports it seems that the Madden ratings have come under a lot more scrutiny this year than others. For me personally as a fan, the initial ratings are kind of irrelevant in most cases as they will change from week to week in the season, but for others they mean a lot. Just because I don’t look into every rating seriously, doesn’t mean a couple didn’t shake me a bit this year. Here are my top 5 shocking Madden 21 ratings. Starting from the top, Michael Thomas received a 99 overall. Don’t get me wrong he is clearly an elite receiver, my only issue with this rating is that it seems too driven by recency bias toward his record breaking catch season. I believe he is not on the level of Julio Jones who only received a 97. The second player on my list is Rob Gronkowski, a fan favorite for his antics on the field, he has come out of retirement for the upcoming season. That is my only complaint about his rating of 95, he literally did not play last year, and he has jumped notable players like Zach Ertz in their prime. My third player I have an issue with is Darius Leonard of the Indianapolis Colts. This one is about a player being rated too low, he received an 85. To me this is just disrespectful, as a rookie he was an all pro who is a tackling machine, gets picks, and forces fumbles. He is the complete package and even through injuries last season got into the pro bowl and had an argument for all pro again. The third player that got hit by a bad madden rating was Aaron Rodgers, he got an 89 and to me this is far too low even for his age. He took the Packers to the conference championship game last year, and he received an 89??? That just didn’t make sense to me. Last but not least, Derwin James Jr., he got an 89 from the madden ratings team, and to me even if he missed most of last year, I think he needs to be higher compared to his peers at the safety position. As a rookie he was clearly an elite talent destined for greatness, but this feels like he has been slighted. Hopefully all of these players come out this year and prove their value is greater than their ratings. Overall this year I think madden messed up some things but generally the ratings are not as bad as the general people make it seem.
Link for ratings: https://www.ea.com/games/madden-nfl/madden-nfl-21/player-ratings