Last season was a breakout campaign for Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher Alex Highsmith. His 14.5 sacks was fourth-best in the NFL in 2022. Fourth best. He looks like he’s going to be an elite edge rushers sooner rather than later, right?
Maybe not. EA Sports released the edge rusher player ratings for Madden NFL 24 and we couldn’t wait to see how high Highsmith and T.J. Watt would be. Watt came in with a 94 and was the fourth-highest overall. Meanwhile, Highsmith was shut out of the top 20 completely and only has an 82 rating.
As we have said, there is no consistency with the Madden ratings and there is obvious bias toward more established players even if they had seasons well worse than what Highsmith did. To reference, Highsmith had more sacks and forced fumbles than Micah Parsons and more tackles and forced fumbles than Myles Garrett.
