Continuing our deep dive series, this article will take a look at the offensive line units of each team in Madden 20. Above you can see my spreadsheet I created to make my observations. I plugged in the blocking stats of the starter at each offensive line position. In some cases when a back up in one position was substantially better than a starter at another I took liberty in moving that back up into a starting role. Quick Stats Top 5 Pass Blocking Units 1-DAL 2-PHI 3-NE 4-GB 5-PIT/BAL Bottom 5 Pass Blocking Unit 1-HOU 2-ATL 3-ARI 4-MIN 5-MIA Top 5 Run Blocking Units 1-DAL 2-NE 3-PHI 4-SF 5-PIT Bottom 5 Run Blocking Units 1-CIN 2-MIN 3-NYJ 4-MIA 5-HOU The Numbers, Then and Now Comparing last year to this year a few things popped out to me. In general the Avg blocking score is about 3 points lower across the board outside of Dallas. The spread grew a bit as well going from 86.7 to 73.8 compared to 86 to 70.8 this year. The biggest

First up in our analytical evaluation of the Madden 20 ratings we take a look at the youth of the various teams and how well situated they are for the future. In order to do this I have developed what I refer to as the "Youth Power Index" and each teams Youth Power RAting, or YPR for short. This formula takes all players on a team 26 or under and then puts them into buckets based on their OVR. Those various buckets are given a modifier score and then the total score is applied to the team to give a snapshot of how well those teams are set to the future. Note: Ties were done alphabetically. Cleveland Browns - 10.45 YPR Dallas Cowboys - 9.5 YPR New Orleans Saints - 8.75 YPR Green Bay Packers - 8.3 YPR Los Angeles Chargers - 8.05 YPR Baltimore Ravens - 7.6 YPR Chicago Bears - 7.55 YPR Kansas City Chiefs - 7.55 YPR Los Angeles Rams - 7.05 YPR Indianapolis Colts - 6.75 YPR Atlanta Falcons - 6.50 YPR Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 6.4 YPR San Francisco 49ers  - 6.3 Y

With the rookie ratings release yesterday the Madden world was in a bit of a spin. EA had warned us for some time now that the ratings would be "stretched" more than we had ever seen before, however it still came as a shock to some the ratings were as low as they were for certain players. While it's hard to really understand the full picture without knowing the rest of the ratings I have added a bit of information to put some things in context. Context is key For some more context Jones is in the top 50 QBs out of 128 total in game which includes free agents — EQUIPMENT SZN (@Equipment_Guru) July 2, 2019 Daniel Jones was the hot player to reference yesterday when it came to overall as his 63 OVR seemed absurdly low for the 6th pick in the draft, maligned or not. Above you can see the tweet from EA rating's head Dustin Smith (Equipment_Guru). While in the past that 63 overall wouldn't even get Jones on a roster in most franchises, Smith expl

With the rookie ratings dropping today there have been a couple surprises and we count down the top 5 rookie rating surprises. While overall ratings aren't a great indicator of the player's actual usefulness in game they make for a great topic of debate! For a full list of rookie ratings click here . #5) Hakeem Butler - WR - Arizona Cardinals Why he made the list: Butler entered the draft as an intriguing prospect that many believed was raw with high upside. That upside though still landed him in the 4th round with the 1st pick to the Cardinals. Madden however appears to be higher on Butler than the NFL teams were. Butler comes in at a 72 OVR and the 26th highest rated rookie in the game. #4) Daniel Jones - QB - New York Giants Why he made the list:  Jones was a surprise pick by many draft pundits, but I'm not sure anyone saw the 6th overall pick being rated so poorly in Madden. Jones checks in with a 63 OVR at launch and actually is the 6th highest

EA just released our first look at ratings for Madden 20 in the form of the rookie ratings. We have learned over the last few months that the ratings have spread out more across the ratings spectrum, which means that there has been more of a downward trend in overalls. Looking back on Madden 19 we can see the difference in comparison to last years ratings and what we know so far about Madden 20. It's a  Whole New World The initial knee jerk reaction will be that the ratings are "too low", but this goes in line with EA's attempt to create more spread in the ratings. By starting the rookies lower it is most likely an indication that this is the "normal" range of average players going forward. We will know more about the ratings as a whole when the rest of the rosters drop however, this does seem to signal they were serious about using more of the range. Numbers of Interest Highest Rated Player 19 - 83 20 - 80 Number 1 Overall Pick Rating

Coming out of the beta, one of the commonly heard complaints was that QB's seemed to "wind up" for throws, even those that were shorter in distance. This led to people immediately calling for it to be "fixed" by the development team. A feature that had been touted by EA as a more realistic representation of QB release times was already being challenged after three days of beta game play. This situation is a microcosm of everything that is wrong in the current player/developer relationship when it comes to Madden. While it's easy to look at the players as the root cause of this unhealthy relationship, the development team must own a piece of it and do their part to improve it.  Patch and Burn Sometimes people are gluttons for punishment. They will ask for something they think they want only to find themselves upset with their desires shortly after. When it comes to Madden, patching is a polarizing topic that has caused so much angst within the commu

Our friends over at Madden School continue to do a nice job of breaking down all the individual abilities, this time for each all defenders  HERE . Staying in sync with our article yesterday, I took a crack at ranking the top five DB's for Madden 20 based on abilities.This ranking does not take age, attributes, or team into consideration they are based solely on their Superstar and X Factor abilities. #4b) Stephon Gilmore - New England Patriots The Abilities: X Factor Ability:  Shutdown What this ability does:  Tighter coverage and more Interceptions on contested catches Super Star Ability:  Acrobat What this ability does:  Increased diving swats and interceptions Super Star Ability:  Man Up What this ability does:  Improved coverage and catch knockouts in man-to-man Why he made the list:  Gilmore makes the list tied with our next player for the #4 spot, but there is no shame in that as their load out is quite nice. Shutdown gives Gilmore tigh