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It’s been decided: Madden ratings release day is one of my favorite Twitter holidays. It’s got everything I like about the platform. There’s outrage over trivial, arbitrary stuff that is purported as being objective, and there’s a whole lot of @’ing the company responsible for this mess—and reaction videos like this to boot:
safe to say Keenan isn't happy with his Madden rating pic.twitter.com/vZwn4ZNeZl
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) July 15, 2019
None of this stuff existed 10 years ago because there was this generational gap where veterans weren’t Madden players their entire adolescent life, and there just wasn’t the opportunity for players to get online and react in real time to the news that their short-route running is a 91 and post a video of them literally sipping tea.
I seriously love this, a rare instance when social media is actually good.
But how could I resist throwing in my two cents? As a lifelong Madden player, I’m highly qualified to share with you my expert opinion for today’s Question of the Day...
Which Lions player was the most underrated in Madden NFL 20?
Scanning over the ratings, there are a couple players that certainly seem underrated by the ratings team. Matthew Stafford at a 79 overall is probably a few points below where he should be considering the company he found himself in at that mark—Marcus Mariota, Andy Dalton, and Derek Carr all outranked the 9 God.
Quandre Diggs at a 77 is a tad low as well, especially when you dig deeper than the overall. A 65 tackle rating? Only 77 hit power? Diggs had 71 tackles—15th among all safeties—and he only missed 10 tackles. According to Pro Football Focus, Diggs was in the top 10 among all safeties in rush defense, but it’s just not adding up in the ratings.
But my answer is Kenny Golladay.
Golladay is the 33rd ranked wide receiver in the game with an 83 overall, but he was one of 18 wide receivers to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark, finishing 14th among all wideouts in receiving yards while playing in just 15 games. In addition, he was the 20th ranked wide receiver in 2018 by Pro Football Focus, but the likes of Allen Robinson II, DeSean Jackson, and Cole Beasley all overall ratings better than Golladay. Even Kenny Stills, who had 553 receiving yards on 37 receptions and six touchdowns in 15 games, was given an 84 overall. Huh?
Your turn.