The player ratings for this year’s version of Madden are out, and some folks are not too happy about it. Seahawks free safety Quandre Diggs went on a brief Twitter rant earlier this week about only getting an 84 overall rating despite playing his position as well as anyone over the last two and a half years. Tight end Noah Fant also seemed peeved at getting an 82 overall.
While the ratings for both Diggs and Fant are too low, they’re nowhere near as off-base as the one quarterback Geno Smith got from EA Sports this year. Smith only earned a 60 overall rating for Madden 23, which is lower than that of Drew Lock (66) as well as third-stringer Jacob Eason (62). Smith’s rating ranks him at No. 65 at his position, tied with the likes of Blaine Gabbert and Easton Stick.
Yesterday Smith took to Twitter to call out Madden – tagging Ochocinco, who was part of the team that produced the ratings this year.
Ocho they got me ranked behind ppl that haven’t even thrown a pass in the league.. it’s all good no pressure https://t.co/lNDmRcFkc7
— Geno (@GenoSmith3) July 22, 2022
Usually players complaining about their Madden rating is a turnoff, but Smith has a very legitimate gripe. To only get a 60 rating after how sharp he looked in his three starts last season is frankly insulting. We were anticipating Smith to be somewhere in the 69-70 range, which would be much more appropriate for his skillset.
Unfortunately, once an NFL player has a reputation it can be difficult to shed, even to people who evaluate their performance for a living. Our guess is that whoever did the QB ratings didn’t watch Geno’s 3.25 games.
The only way for Smith to prove his doubters wrong is to win the QB1 competition and ball out as Seattle’s starter this year.