As the preseason gets started tonight and the regular season stands just one month exactly away for the Detroit Lions, there is another date coming very quickly that most NFL fans have marked down on their calendars. Of course, I'm talking about the release of Madden 08, the latest installment of the famed video game franchise. This year's Madden comes out on August 14, which is next Tuesday. From everything I've seen, whether it be videos, previews, or screenshots, 08 looks like it will probably be the best version yet.
Back on July 18, NCAA 08 came out and I've loved it ever since. It is by far the best football video game I've ever played, so I'm hoping Madden is just as good or even better. I won't even begin to get into all of the new features that can be found in the newest version of Madden, but what I do want to talk about is the Lions' roster in 08. Since the game will be out in the very near future, video game websites have been putting out in-depth information to help ease the wait.
SportsGamer.com is probably one of the best with Madden info this year. They released all 32 teams' rosters and playbooks, so credit to them for all of the info you're about to see.
First, let's look at the entire Lions roster. You will see quite a few mistakes on there considering there have been many transactions since the final roster was made, but don't worry about that right now. Usually EA puts out a roster update right before the season starts (some time after the final cut date) to make things more accurate. Until that day comes, you should be able to find a download on the Internet that corrects things quite a bit if you know how to do that kind of stuff. Anyways, here is Detroit's roster on Madden 08 (number to the right of each player is overall rating):
QB Jon Kitna - 84
QB Dan Orlovsky - 73
QB Drew Stanton - 73
RB Kevin Jones - 84
RB Tatum Bell - 82
RB T.J. Duckett - 73
RB Brian Calhoun - 72
FB Shawn Bryson - 79
FB Casey FitzSimmons - 78
WR Roy Williams - 92
WR Calvin Johnson - 87
WR Mike Furrey - 83
WR Marcus Robinson - 77
WR Shaun McDonald - 70
WR Eddie Drummond - 64
TE Dan Campbell - 80
TE Eric Beverly - 69
TE Darnell Sanders - 69
LT Jeff Backus - 88
LT Jonathan Scott - 72
LG Edwin Mulitalo - 87
LG Stephen Peterman - 72
C Dominic Raiola - 86
C Blaine Saipaia - 70
RG Damien Woody - 91
RG Manuel Ramirez - 74
RT George Foster - 84
RT Rex Tucker - 82
LE Dewayne White - 83
LE Jared DeVries - 70
LE Ikaika Alama-Francis - 69
DT Shaun Rogers - 94
DT Cory Redding - 86
DT Shaun Cody - 76
DT Cleveland Pinkney - 64
RE Kalimba Edwards - 78
RE Corey Smith - 67
LOLB Boss Bailey - 82
LOLB Alex Lewis - 74
MLB Paris Lenon - 79
MLB Teddy Lehman - 71
ROLB Ernie Sims - 88
ROLB Donte Curry - 60
CB Fernando Bryant - 82
CB Travis Fisher - 78
CB Stanley Wilson - 77
CB Keith Smith - 72
CB A.J. Davis - 69
FS Daniel Bullocks - 82
FS Gerald Alexander - 74
SS Kenoy Kennedy - 80
SS Idrees Bashir - 68
K Jason Hanson - 92
P Nick Harris - 85
As you can see, there is a lot of work to do to fix this roster, but I wouldn't worry about that too much. As far as ratings go, Shaun Rogers got the highest with a 94 and Donte Curry got stuck with a dismal 60, coming in at worst on the roster. Rookie WR Calvin Johnson was given an 87 overall and 96 speed, making him a definite go to target already.
Also on SportsGamer.com are the playbooks for every team. For the Lions playbook, you can go here.
Only five days to go until Madden 08 is released. I'll be picking it up as soon as it's out and will give you guys my impressions once I go through the game enough to get an idea of it.