The most popular football video game franchise ever, Madden,
turns 25 years old in 2013. The original “John Madden Football” was released
for PC in 1988, and the 2013 version is available on August 28.
The game ranks players on a scale of 0-100 in a variety of
skill categories, and every year NFL players and fans scramble to find out how
they – or their favorite player – stack up against the competition.
This year’s player rankings having been released, let’s take
a look at how our Baltimore Ravens fared.
At the quarterback position, Joe Flacco comes in with an
overall rating of 88. The guys at EA Sports gave Joe a 77 for speed, 86 for
awareness, 95 for throwing power, and 77 for deep ball accuracy.
I think Ravens fans will agree with that assessment for the
most part. Now that Joe has been given several speedy wideouts, he needs to do
a better job of connecting with them on deep throws down the field.
Backups Curtis Painter and Tyrod Taylor scored overall at 68
and 67, respectively, reiterating what all Ravens fans know – if Joe gets hurt,
we’re in trouble.
At running back, the Ravens’ starting duo of Ray Rice and
Vonta Leach were well represented, with overall rankings of 95 and 92,
respectively. Rice had individual
rankings of 91 for speed, 97 for acceleration, 84 for strength, 75 for
trucking, and 93 for elusiveness.
EA doesn’t think nearly as much of the Ravens’ wide
receivers and tight ends. The highest rated pass catchers were Anquan Boldin at
87 and Torrey Smith at 80. Though Smith registered a 95 for speed, his 69
awareness rating really brought down his overall ranking.
Ed Dickson rates a 77, and Dennis Pitta and Jacoby Jones
each came in at 74. None of the other Ravens receivers or tight ends had a
score of higher than 67.
Quarterbacks:
|
|
overall
|
speed
|
awareness
|
throwing power
|
deep accuracy
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Joe Flacco
|
88
|
73
|
86
|
95
|
77
|
|
Curtis Painter
|
68
|
65
|
65
|
86
|
63
|
|
Tyrod Taylor
|
67
|
87
|
52
|
92
|
66
|
Running backs:
|
|
overall
|
speed
|
acceleration
|
strength
|
trucking
|
elusiveness
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ray Rice
|
95
|
91
|
97
|
84
|
75
|
93
|
|
Vonta Leach
|
92
|
69
|
80
|
84
|
74
|
40
|
|
Anthony Allen
|
70
|
84
|
82
|
77
|
92
|
54
|
|
Bernard Pierce
|
69
|
88
|
91
|
62
|
77
|
69
|
|
Damien Bery
|
67
|
83
|
87
|
76
|
87
|
64
|
|
Bobby Rainey
|
62
|
86
|
90
|
72
|
61
|
75
|
Receivers and tight ends:
|
|
overall
|
speed
|
acceleration
|
strength
|
awareness
|
catching
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Anquan Boldin
|
87
|
86
|
85
|
79
|
90
|
88
|
|
Torrey Smith
|
80
|
95
|
97
|
57
|
69
|
83
|
|
Ed Dickson
|
77
|
83
|
86
|
69
|
75
|
83
|
|
Dennis Pitta
|
74
|
82
|
78 |
61
|
73
|
87
|
|
Jacoby Jones
|
74
|
93
|
88
|
63
|
75
|
74
|
|
David Reed
|
67
|
90
|
94
|
39
|
68
|
73
|
|
Tandon Doss
|
65
|
84
|
88
|
68
|
56
|
85
|
|
LaQuan Williams
|
61
|
86
|
89
|
52
|
53
|
72
|
|
Patrick Williams
|
61
|
85
|
80
|
57
|
57
|
65
|
|
Tommy Streeter
|
57
|
93
|
80
|
57
|
40
|
68
|
|
Deonte Thompson
|
56
|
97
|
95
|
67
|
36
|
66
|
We’ll look at defensive player ratings in another post, but
for now, enjoy this Madden 2013 commercial starring Ray Lewis and the hilarious
Paul Rudd. I have no idea if Rudd is really a Steelers fan (he’s from New Jersey so…probably?) but he certainly captures their arrogance perfectly here. Just replace Ray saying “you know I’m up like six games right now?” with a fan of any other team saying “you know we beat the Steelers like last week right?” and Paul’s “black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow” with “DUHHHH SIX!” and I think I’ve had this conversation about 800 times.
