The entire player ratings for “Madden NFL 20” were released today, giving fans their first opportunity to see how their Seattle Seahawks were rated in the latest edition of the franchise.
We already knew the rookie ratings, which came out a few weeks ago, and last week it was announced that linebacker Bobby Wagner would be one of five players to get a perfect 99 overall rating.
Now we can take a look at everyone else on the Seahawks roster and see how “Madden” values them against each other and against other players at the same position.
These shouldn’t be taken too seriously — they don’t even list George Fant as a tight end, instead listing Tyler Ott, the team’s long snapper, there.
“Madden” is a video game and not an evaluation system. There is plenty to like and dislike about Seattle’s perceived rankings, however — including where Russell Wilson ranks among quarterbacks and the disrespect shown to defensive tackle Poona Ford.
Here are five observations based on the “Madden 20” rankings, which can be seen filtered for the Seahawks at this link.
Russell Wilson is below Andrew Luck
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson checks in with a 91 overall rating, coming in at No. 6 among all NFL quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes is first with a 97 overall rating, followed by Tom Brady (96), Philip Rivers (94), Drew Brees (92) and Andrew Luck (92).
While Wilson does beat out Aaron Rodgers (90), it’s a bit surprising to see him fall behind Luck, especially after a half-decade-long battle between the two has primarily featured Wilson coming out on top, both statistically and in his team’s success.
Luck is higher rated in awareness (96-93) and strength (74-59), but Wilson edges him in speed (86-83) accuracy (90-86) and agility (93-84).
There are a lot of great quarterbacks in the NFL right now, but it’s still hard to imagine that five of them are better than Wilson, who is coming off a season in which he threw 35 touchdowns, seven interceptions and posted a 110.9 passer rating, the third-best in the league.
Poona Ford is criminally underrated
Despite posting elite numbers last season according to Pro Football Focus, the undrafted defensive tackle only received a 71 overall rating heading into his second NFL season.
Ford falls way behind veteran Al Woods (77) and is barely above Nazair Jones (69) even though he is expected to start over both of them.
Ford gets a low rating for his awareness (72), which is typical of rookies but usually goes up if they had a successful rookie season, which Ford did.
He also gets low marks for his speed and agility — which is fair — but only has an 85 mark in strength, which is well below Woods (93) and falls short of lesser players like Jamie Meder (87) and Jones (87).
Ford is expected to start on the defensive interior, and another excellent season stuffing the run lanes up front for the Seahawks should get his “Madden” ratings closer to where they should be.
Shaquill Griffin, Tre Flowers higher than Bradley McDougald
Not only is McDougald underrated at just 79 overall, he is listed as a free safety despite playing almost exclusively in the box last season.
Furthermore, he is behind both Seattle’s starting cornerbacks, Flowers and Griffin.
No disrespect to either of them, but watching the Seahawks last year it was pretty clear that McDougald was the best player in the defensive secondary — after Earl Thomas got hurt, of course.
McDougald is hit hard by a low 67 rating in strength, which falls below Griffin (68) and Tedric Thompson (68), and is tied with Jamar Taylor and Shalom Luani.
This seems like an oversight to me, as McDougald packs a punch in Seattle’s secondary, and is without a doubt their most polished, highest-performing player at the moment.
‘Madden’ likes Chris Carson in the RB battle
Coming off a season in which he ran for 1,151 yards and nine touchdowns, the “Madden” makers are big fans of Carson. He earned an overall rating of 87, tied with Tyler Lockett for the third-highest mark on the team.
Carson earned solid ratings all across the board, including a 93 for awareness and an 89 for acceleration, leading to the very solid overall mark.
Rashaad Penny, who is expected to split full-time duties with Carson this season, came in at 78 overall. He had high marks in the speed and agility categories but just a 74 in awareness and a 71 in strength.
It’s clear that Penny has some work to do to overtake Carson in Seattle’s backfield, but it would not be a surprise to see these two ranked much closer next season.
J.D. McKissic is next at 74 overall, followed by C.J. Prosise (66), Travis Homer (63) and Bo Scarbrough (62).
Geno Smith has the edge on Paxton Lynch
If “Madden” is how the Seahawks decide their backup quarterback battle, then Smith would get the slight edge over Lynch.
Smith has an overall rating of 58, just ahead of Lynch’s 57. Smith earned a slightly higher grade thanks to his speed (84) and agility (82) as well as his awareness, which at 68 isn’t all that good but still tops Lynch’s 61.
Lynch has him in accuracy (84-82) and strength (74-56), but “Madden” gives the overall edge to Smith.
Coach Pete Carroll also seems likely to give the edge to Smith — at least for the moment — although both players will get an equal shot to show they deserve the spot during training camp, which is set to begin on July 25.
