Madden 23 doesn’t come out for another month, but unless you’ve been living under a rock it’s been impossible not to notice this week was ratings reveal week.
Some ratings, as has become a midsummer tradition, left many fans, players, and pundits in outrage.
No worries, however, our Andy Nesbitt spoke with the Madden’s rating guy, Dustin Smith, at EA Sports to break down some of this year’s most controversial ratings for USA Today’s Sports Seriously.
As Smith would like to point out, these ratings will no doubt fluctuate in real time once the season begins based on real life performances. But for now, enjoy these explanations:
On Tom Brady being the top QB with a 97 rating.:
How is 45-year-old Tom Brady the highest ranked QB on #Madden23? Today I talked with the guy @EAMaddenNFL who makes the rankings and asked him just that. pic.twitter.com/klfWOMIeBM
— Andy Nesbitt (@anezbitt) July 22, 2022
On Ja’Marr Chase not being in the top 10 of WRs with an 87 rating:
How is Ja'Marr Chase not in the top 10 of WRs in the #madden23 ratings? Allow the man who makes those ratings to explain. pic.twitter.com/94nxf4aI79
— Andy Nesbitt (@anezbitt) July 22, 2022
On Kyler Murray not being a top-10 QB and what he might need to do get there:
Consistency, consistency, consistency, and some mid-level accuracy is kind of an area of struggle for him which may have to do with the height. I don’t know. I just know that that’s one of the areas that he could get better.
Sometimes he’ll sail the ball a little too frequently, sometimes outside of the numbers too.
We know the athletic abilities are there, the deep balls are where he is really good. And the short game’s pretty darn solid.
He’s our second best rushing quarterback right behind Lamar Jackson. And that’s not to be slighted despite the fact that he’s not really a tackle breaker or anything like Lamar, but he can do everything else on the run.
On why Trevon Diggs, who had 11 INTs last year, isn’t in the top 10 for CBs:
I do love Trevon. And I’m not surprised he feels the way he does. I mean, I get it.
So the biggest thing we have in cornerbacks is they’re almost always strictly judged on ball production, which is understandable, interceptions is king to a lot of people
In our rating system catching matters, but only so much [compared to] the consistency of how often are you letting guys open in man or zone?
He gave up a ton of yards. He’s not the best in the run game. Obviously thinks he can clearly get better and he’s still very good. So we don’t treat him bad.
Again, these ratings will change each week but it was fun to learn more about how the initial ones are made.
