If you pick up the only new NFL video game, “Madden 21”, when it hits store shelves, you’ll catch Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson on the cover in all his glory. Yet, despite being the video game franchise’s latest cover athlete and winning the NFL’s MVP award last season, Jackson didn’t earn the elusive 99 player rating. In fact, Jackson isn’t even the top quarterback in the game.
EA Sports released some of their player ratings, including the top 10 quarterbacks. While Jackson is featured high on the list, he comes in third behind Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson with a pretty disappointing 94 overall rating.
While Jackson is the fastest and most agile quarterback in the game, he falls short in just about every other category, including some that he’d seemingly top the league in.
Below are the most important ratings for quarterbacks and where Jackson finds himself among his position group:
- 95 awareness (fifth-highest among quarterbacks)
- 92 throw power (tied for fourth)
- 92 stamina (seventh)
- 91 throw-under-pressure (fourth)
- 92 short-throw-accuracy (sixth)
- 83 medium-throw-accuracy (11th)
- 86 deep-throw-accuracy (tied for seventh)
- 89 play-action (tied for seventh)
- 95 throw-on-the-run (third)
While it’s hard to hate on any of the individual rankings or even where Jackson is placed in his position group, it bucks the usual trend in “Madden” video games. Typically the cover athletes have gotten a little boost in all their ratings to help make them one of the best players in the game. Like Jackson, most cover athletes are fresh off an especially impressive season where they put themselves at the top of the sport. Yet, unlike previous years, Jackson finds himself surprisingly shortchanged in the ratings. It’s something a few of Jackson’s teammates called out on Twitter.
If Jackson can start off the 2020 regular season the same way he did last year, I’d expect those ratings to get a pretty big bump.
