Injuries are one of the most important aspects of building a realistic Franchise mode in Madden. As anyone who watches NFL football can tell you, it’s an incredibly violent and physical sport. As a consequence, injuries are frequent, both minor and serious. On top of that, injuries play a key role in how NFL teams make roster decisions, as well as test their depth and change the course of their seasons. But, according to players on the Operation Sports forums, Madden 26‘s injury system — especially in simulated games — isn’t producing realistic results.
Before we get too deep into it, let me remind you that Madden 26 technically just came out. It was released in early access on August 7, and its full release was on August 14. So, things can always change with future updates, as well as further experimentation with slider sets. But here’s what the deal is with injuries in the early stages of Madden 26‘s lifecycle.
Long-Term Injuries Are A Rarity In Madden 26 Franchise Mode
The most common complaint when it comes to injuries in Madden 26 is that there is a lack of significant, long-term injuries in Franchise mode. While in-game play can yield a steady stream of bumps and bruises, simmed weeks often result in nothing more than minor one or two-week injuries.
Quarterbacks seem to be especially resilient. According to OS user Unlucky13, only two teams had seen a backup QB throw a pass 13 weeks into his Franchise mode playthrough. Even when QBs did get knocked out of games visually, they often returned the following week, if not that very game.
On top of that, not a single player in the league had ended up on injured reserve. If anyone here is even a casual NFL fan, you’ll know that this would be an absolute miracle in real life and almost certainly a sign of the End Times.
Can Sliders Fix The Injury Issue In Madden 26 Franchise Mode?
Given that OpSports users are some of, if not the, most dedicated sports gamers in the world, they haven’t been waiting for EA to come in with an update or a live tune to fix the injury issue in Madden 26 Franchise mode. Instead, they’ve been messing around with the in-game slider settings to see if they can find a fix for themselves. Unfortunately, the results of this meddling have been mixed, at best.
OS veteran Lil Worm seems to have found some success by adjusting Fatigue to 75 and Injuries to 52, while Unlucky13 reported that bumping Injuries up to 60 led to multiple season-ending injuries and a steady flow of short-term knocks. Others, such as toodles2you90, believe the sweet spot is closer to 52-53.
The problem seems to be that players are either seeing too many or too few injuries when playing with the injury sliders. These injuries also seem to be disproportionately affecting offense and defensive linemen while still leaving quarterbacks mostly untouched.
Injuries Might Be Bugged
Beyond frequency issues when it comes to injuries, other users have reported persistent bugs as well. Steelerfan reported that their quarterback had left a game with a ruptured disc, but was completely healthy the last week. Depending on the severity, a ruptured disc can take anywhere from 2 to 12 weeks to heal. So yeah, the recovery process might produce varied results in real life, but a one-week road to recovery is certainly not too plausible. Kdutch98 also reported a player being listed as “OUT” on the injury report, but still playing in the following game.
Overall, the consensus seems to be clear: While in-game injuries can be tuned to be somewhat realistic, Franchise mode’s simulated injury system needs a ton of work. Quarterbacks are way too durable, major injuries are too infrequent, and there are bugs that subvert the player’s immersion.
We’ve linked the original post to the comments so you can keep up with this developing issue. Also, feel free to provide your own experience with injuries in Madden 26 Franchise mode in the comments!
