Not everyone made it into the Madden NFL 26 closed beta, but for those who did, the development team was looking for honest feedback to help shape the game prior to official release. That input has already led to some noticeable improvements and the team has been quick to act on what the community had to say.
Plenty of players shared how much they enjoyed the beta and the team took that momentum and built on it. Since then, they’ve added a number of new features, including a new juke move that’s been designed to feel more authentic.
The team released a list of updates covering everything from alignment and blocking to playbooks, coverage and presentation. They also added more shoes and gloves, and they’ve taken note of the feedback about player portraits. A refresh for those is already in the post-launch plans. You can check out the full list of changes below, courtesy of the latest Gridiron Notes. Most, if not all of these updates will be available when the game officially launches, but some might sneak into a future title update.
ALIGNMENT
- Removed Base Align from Coach Adjustments
- DEV NOTE – Base align has been removed from Madden in favor of more authentic alignment-related systems, such as coverage shells and safety-depth. This change will allow gameplay to better reflect real-life football concepts on both sides of the ball, and bring players more strategic options that are true to the sport. To further support this, we’ve added new alignment functionality shown below.
- Changed the pre-snap defensive adjustment Show Blitz to bring walked out Linebackers back in the box and move Blitzing DBs in tighter
- Added Defensive Motion Response to Coach Adjustments
- Default – Defense will re-align in response to offensive motion
- Disabled – Defense will NOT re-align in response to offensive motion
- Added new alignment logic to reduce occurrences of defenders lining up on top of each other:
- CB’s will not be able to align in press alignment vs. tight splits where there is already a LB or DL aligned in that position
- To offer appropriate spacing, inside CB’s will automatically reposition themselves if set to align right next to an outside CB
- Added Coverage Shells to the following formations
- Nickel 33 Cub
- 52
- 43 Odd
- 34 Over
- Quarters Normal
- Nickel Triple
- Dime 23
- Dime 23 Sam
- Quarters 137
- Dime 1-4
- Dollar 32 Mug
BLOCKING
- Made fixes to offensive linemen targeting issues resulting in defensive linemen coming untouched
- Fixed an issue with Pulling guards moving the wrong way on specific run plays
- Tuning to block shedding and block steering controlling to make defenders more effective vs. run blocking
- Tuning to QB contain so contain defenders will be better at predicting when to disengage
- DEV NOTE: For user-controlled defenders, there was a change made to disengaging that we want players to be aware of before launch: to disengage away from a blocker, you now have to press the X/A button in addition to holding the LStick away from the block. This change was in the beta, but was something we saw players asking about. The reason for this additional input is for block steering controls.
- Added logic to QB Contain to play the QB when the offense runs play action boot plays
PRE-PLAY
- Introduced enhanced ‘Ice the Kicker’ visuals and dynamic effects to the kick meter to intensify the high-stakes atmosphere of this pivotal gameplay moment.
- Added Flat Route back to the Slot Receiver hot route tree
- Fixed an issue preventing Hard Flats from being stemmed up via Custom Zones, including if the play was flipped
PLAYBOOKS
- DEV NOTE – Players gave us feedback on playbooks from the Beta, starting first with the “smaller” playbook sizes. As a result, we were able to add roughly 100-150 plays to every offensive playbook to bring the volume of plays back to parity with Madden 25, and in some cases, more plays than last year. We also heard feedback that some of the playbooks didn’t have the desired level of variety and were missing “basic” formations like I-Form, Strong or Weak. Even though we aim to mimic playbooks based on what teams do in real life, we also understand that users want access to some of these legacy formations to be more varied and strategic, so we’ve added these into playbooks as well.
- Added new run plays to both backs on all Gun-Split Back formations so there is more variety in the run game in those formations
- Added 4 New “Generic” Playbooks to give users more options to play with. These include: Singleback, Two Back, Shotgun Mix and Shotgun Offense with a very specific focus on these formations or personnel packages. These playbooks also include a variety of legacy formations and plays that were not in Madden25 and are also available in our Custom Playbooks feature.
THROW OUT OF SACK
- Tuning to throw-out-of-sack animations so QB’s will be more likely to hold onto the ball during a sack on Competitive game style.
- Tuning to reduce the amount of flutter on throws out of sacks.
GENERAL
- Fixed an issue preventing D-Line Stunts & Twists from triggering consistently in game.
- Tuning to Wear and Tear to better balance impact to scrambling QB’s and every-down RB’s
- Fixed an issue allowing onside kicks to be too easy to recover
- Added a new precision juke that is faster and more effective that can be performed using LT/L2 as a modifier on the RStick juke mechanic
- Fixed an issue causing AI-controlled teams to go for it on 4th down in the wrong situations
- Tuning to increase the frequency of catch knockouts
Coverage
- 2 Match Logic Updates – You’ll see these when calling Cover 6, Cover 9, and Zone Blitz 2 plays.
- Modifications were done to our cover 2 match logic, which is referred to as ‘2 Carry’ or ‘2 Wild’ in the NFL. You’ll see these updates in action on the backside of cover 6, frontside of 9, and both sides in our zone blitz 2 plays. We completely rebuilt our VERTICAL HOOK logic to have it match all inside and vertical routes of the final 2 receivers, previously it didn’t match inside routes.
- The soft squat and deep half safeties are also playing smarter to complement each other with man match rules that make it tough to throw to the outside part of the field. One of the advantages of playing this updated 2 match is that it works well against bunches, stacks, compression sets, and motion offenses as it provides better leverage on routes that intersect.
Superstar
- Fixed the logic around being benched.
- Fixed an issue where the previous team’s uniform was still displayed on the CAP after being traded.
- Fixed Head Coach & Sports Psychologist progression from Training, as well as other Sphere of Influence characters.
- Fixed an issue where the CAP was always promoted to starter after the first season.
- Fixed an issue where the post-game Performance banner was not displaying accurate values.
Presentation
- Fixed incorrect player appearing on player stats banner
- Fixed issue with head coach appearing on incorrect sideline
- Fixed “end of regulation” appearing on banner at end of quarter
- Fixed Bears mascot appearing at Ravens home game
Gear & Equipment
Maybe you missed it, maybe not, but we are happy to say that Madden NFL 26 has the Guardian Cap, both sleeved and unsleeved, including new shoes and gloves!
Shoes
- Adidas Electric 2
- Adidas Electric 2 Snakeskin
- Adidas Adizero Electric 2 Exotic Speed
- Adidas Chaos Snakeskin
- Adidas Impact snakeskin
- UA Blur
- UA Blur Pro
- UA Clone
- UA Clone Pro
- UA Hammer
- UA Highlight
- UA Spotlight Suede
- Nike Vapor Edge Pro 360 2
- Nike Alpha Menace 4 Pro
- Nike Alpha Menace Strong
Gloves
- Adidas Adizero 15
- Adidas Adizero 15 Exotic DSG
- Adidas Impact 2
- UA Blur
- UA Combat
- UA Infrared
- UA F9
