The Madden 26 early access window opened today, and we are scouring the game for all the juicy new ratings. While we discuss individual player ratings in other articles, like rookie ratings and QB ratings, we will focus on team offenses here. I’ll break them down into different categories and give you my top five offenses for various situations. Starting with the top five overall offenses and exploring the nitty-gritty of offensive playbook rankings, let’s dive into my comprehensive offensive rankings.
Top Five Offenses
Ravens (94)
The Ravens are led by the best backfield duo in the game with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry (rated 99 and 98, respectively). Star tight end Mark Andrews and blindside blocker Ronnie Stanley round out the rest of their 90+ overall players and help solidify their identity as a run-first/ read option offense using a power run game and checkdowns to tight ends to drive the ball downfield
Eagles (94)
One of the best offensive lines in the game, the Eagles are led up front by 99 overall Lane Johnson at right tackle, 96 overall Jordan Mailata at left tackle, and 88 overall Landon Dickerson at left guard. This line, of course, creates movement upfront for cover athlete Saquon Barkley, who joins Johnson in the 99 club. With A.J. Brown at 93 overall, Devonta Smith at 89 overall, Dallas Goedert at 87 overall, and Jalen Hurts at 86 overall (a bit of an underrate if you ask me), the Eagles actually eclipse the Ravens with eight 85+ overall offensive players compared to Baltimore’s six.
Bengals (92)
The Bengals overall aren’t that great of a team in Madden, mainly to do with their poor defense, but I gotta say, despite the high rating, I’m not that impressed with their offense either. Ja’Marr Chase is a 99 overall, which is fair, and Joe Burrow is a 97 overall (probably should be higher, but I digress), but after that, they only have one other player (Tee Higgins at 87 overall) who is above an 81 overall rating! Their O-line is underwhelming, and they have no real running threat. I really don’t think this offense should be rated this high.
Lions (91)
Is Jared Goff an elite QB? No. He’s only rated an 87 in the game, which seems to be a fair rating given his overall skill level, but the rest of this offense is so elite, Goff doesn’t need to be a 90+ overall to win games. Penei Sewell highlights the O-line, which is led by him (96 overall) and Taylor Decker (87 overall). Behind that line is explosive back Jamie Gibbs, ranked at 95 overall, and David Montgomery, who is slightly underrated, sitting at just 80 overall. Amon-Ra St. Brown (96 overall) is the crown jewel of this offense and leads a pass-catching corps that includes Sam LaPorta (86 overall) and Jameson Williams (82 overall).
Bills (90)
The Bills only have four offensive players at or above 85 overall, but they happen to be at arguably the four most important positions on the offense. The first up is QB, with Josh Allen in the 99 club, who is supercharging this offense into one of the best in the game by sheer talent alone. Then you have the bookend tackles with Dion Dawkins on the left side, sitting at a 91 overall rating, and Spencer Brown on the right side, sitting at 85. Finally, we get to the running back position, which is filled by one of the most dynamic runners currently in the game, James Cook, who has an 89 overall rating.
Top Five Most Fun Offenses To Play
Ravens
With the option offense, power running game of Derrick Henry, and elite speed of Lamar Jackson, the Ravens sometimes feel more like a team you’d play as in EA Sports College Football 26 than Madden.
Eagles
Saquon alone would make this offense fun to play as, but when you add in Hurt’s legs, Browns’ physicality on the outside, Smith’s deep game, and all the other facets of this offense, you have a recipe for excitement.
Commanders
Jayden Daniels should probably be rated higher than 85 after his stellar rookie season. However, even with his underrated skills in the game, he still has the athleticism and offense around him to be electric in the game. You also have Terry McLaurin, who balances out the duo by being hugely overrated in the game at 94 overall.
Chiefs
All that speed on the outside with Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice, and Hollywood Brown will equal easy touchdowns for Madden players using Mahomes, who is still one of the premier deep ball arms in the league and the game.
Jets
I’m a Justin Fields fan, so my opinion might be a little biased, but I think any offense centered around him will inherently be exciting. Go back and watch his highlights with the Bears and even with the Steelers; every time he has the ball with time and space, he can make things happen (usually with his legs). I like his chances on this offense, including 86 overall Garrett Wilson and 84 overall Breece Hall.
Top Five Best Rebuild Offenses
Giants
The Giants are my team, but even I’ve gotta say: they stink! But I’m optimistic about the future, because they have a lot of good building blocks that any Madden rebuilder will appreciate. Of course, we’ll see if Jaxson Dart is genuinely the guy or not in time, but even outside the QB position, you have Malik Nabers, Tyrone Tracy, Wan’Dale Robinson, and even Cam Skattebo, who should be interesting to watch on offense. The future might be bright for the Giants, at least in Madden.
Browns
What will you do with this mess of an organization? Honestly, it’s a question that can be posed every year. The Browns are consistently one of the top rebuild teams in Madden because they are always so disappointing in real life. This year is particularly egregious with their while QB drama, maybe you can do a Shedeur Sanders-centered rebuild where you commit to developing him as the future QB, because I doubt the Browns will in real life.
Saints
The Saints are/have been in a miserable salary cap situation. They finally have an opportunity to do a full rebuild here in the next few years if they play their cards right and fall on the sword for a year or two, they’ll likely have to play with about half of their salary cap due to all the dead cap space. You can use that year or two to restructure the payroll and build draft capital that could help the team move into their next era.
Raiders
This is an easy rebuild; you just build around Ashton Jeanty and let him run you into the history books. I don’t think there’s much need to overthink this rebuild; you know what the team’s identity is going to be. Go get yourself a young game manager quarterback, a bunch of defensive studs, and massive O-linemen, and run down opponents’ throats. It’s a straightforward road map to a successful rebuild.
Steelers
You’ve got one year of Aaron Rodgers at quarterback to figure out where this franchise will go next. The options are seemingly limitless after that point.
Top Five Underrated Offenses
Texans
C.J. Stroud is criminally underrated in the game, sitting at just 81 overall despite possessing really solid passing attributes and being a phenomenal quarterback who is only considered to be coming off of a down year because his rookie year was so good. Stroud is a stellar QB, and we saw last year that Joe Mixon still has a lot left in the tank. Add them to a receiver corps (that includes Nico Collins, who was also criminally underrated) that got supercharged in the draft. You have yourself a super underrated offense.
Packers
Speaking of teams who supercharged their receiver room in the draft, the Packers may have fixed the issue that slowed them down last season after looking like one of the best offenses in the league. They added Matthew Golden and Sai’Vion Williams to a group that struggled to really jump off the page last year. Could they be an elite unit this season? It’s possible, they certainly have the talent.
Vikings
The Vikings are very dependent on J.J. McCarthy being serviceable in his role as the team’s facilitator, but as we’ve seen in previous years, that role isn’t particularly hard with elite playmakers like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and Aaron Jones on the team. This team is consistently putting up big numbers with subpar quarterbacks under center. I think it’s finally time we consider them a legit force both in the NFL and in Madden.
Cardinals
You’ve got a nasty run game with James Conner and a stable of other notable backs, as well as the wheels of Kyler Murray. You also have a sleeping giant in Marvin Harrison Jr., who could wind up taking over the league if he finally puts it together like his class of 24 receiver counterparts. The Cardinals also have one of the most underrated tight ends in the league in Trey McBride, as well as an O-line that is better than what people think.
Raiders
They have two top ten tight ends in my opinion (I’m a big Michael Mayer guy and with the addition of Ashton Jeanty, Jack Bech, and Geno Smith, I think they’ve built an excellent foundation for an elite west coast/run first system.
Top Five Offensive Playbooks
Lions
The Lions no longer have Ben Johnson, but their playbook is still great. With the Bunch X Nasty formation, along with Wing Pair Heavy and Wing stack, the Lions have many unique formations and plays that focus on asymmetric attacks and speed.
Ravens
Run, run, and run some more. QB options, QB draws, power runs, end-arounds — however you want to run the Ravens playbook, it has your back. It includes some shot plays, of course, but overall, this is a run-first and run-heavy playbook that is perfect for teams like the Ravens, Eagles, and Colts, who want to run the ball a lot with their elite RBs.
Giants
The Giants may not have a great team, but their playbook is actually surprisingly good. While I acknowledge my biases (I’m a Giants superfan over here), I do think this is a very flexible playbook that can serve any number of purposes. From bunch to spread, from air raid to run heavy, this playbook has both the gun and Singleback formations and plays that can lead you to a balanced and dynamic attack that can help you adjust to opposing defenses on the fly.
Packers
The Packers have a bunch of formations built into their playbook. With Cluster and Cluster HB strength being their signature formations, this team can hit you with the power run, play action, or shock shot play at any moment in a solid use of formation compression.
West Coast
The standard West Coast offensive system is always one of my favorites because it makes the game a lot simpler with its touchdown/checkdown approach. The underneath passing attack is always a critical feature for offenses in Madden, and there are a bunch of plays that utilize those route concepts in the West Coast playbook.
Final Takeaway
I think the main takeaway here is that while certain offenses are better than others in the game, the listed overall doesn’t mean nearly as much as the user’s play style. If you’re most comfortable with an air raid offense, you likely won’t have as much success with the Ravens as you would with the Chiefs. That also applies to the type of modes you want to play. If you like franchise mode and rebuilding teams, you probably want to go with a team like the Giants rather than the Eagles, but when playing head-to-head, you may want to flip that and go with the Eagles instead of New York.
You should always go with what makes sense for you and your play style!
