Madden NFL 23 ratings: Detroit Lions receivers graded curiously low

Are you currently walking through life hoping to find something fairly meaningless to get angry at? Well, I’ve got great news for you!

EA Sports has begun their rollout for player ratings in the new Madden NFL 23 game. They will be revealing ratings position by position and started on Monday with tight end and wide receiver rankings.

Many Detroit Lions fans have spent all offseason praising the team’s wide receiver room, especially after Amon-Ra St. Brown’s late-season breakout and the additions of DJ Chark and Jameson Williams.

However, the developers at Madden must not be very convinced at the Lions’ improvement at the position. Every single Lions wide receiver got a rating of 78 or lower—ranking them 60th and lower among every other NFL wide receiver. Here’s a look at the rating of each Lions wide receiver.

Amon-Ra St. Brown: 78
DJ Chark: 78
Jameson Williams: 78
Josh Reynold: 73
Quintez Cephus: 73
Kalif Raymond: 73
Trinity Benson: 69
Tom Kennedy: 66

While it’s easy to get upset over these rankings, seeing as expectations for these players are indeed higher than these ratings suggest, they also reveal some understandable national skepticism about each player.

St. Brown finished last season as the Offensive Rookie of the Month, but how good can he be for an entire season? Chark had a Pro Bowl season in 2019, but has yet to produce another year like that and is coming off a serious ankle injury. Williams has a ton of physical tools, but he’s a rookie and currently rehabbing from a torn ACL. The ratings on Reynolds, Cephus and Raymond seem relatively fair, seeing as none of those three have proven to be above-average when in a starting role.

Still, it’s a bit staggering to see such low rating numbers, when just about everyone would agree that this receiver room is much better than it was last year. As pointed out by our own Mike Payton, Tyrell Williams—last year’s No. 1 Lions wide receiver going into the season—earned a 79 Madden rating. Even Breshad Perriman had a 75.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Lions in this initial rating rollout, though. T.J. Hockenson has an 89 overall rating, which is fifth among all tight ends. And Jameson Williams’ 78 overall rating was actually first among rookie receivers, ahead of Drake London (75), Garrett Wilson (76), and Chris Olave (76). Madden also gave Williams 98 speed, behind only Tyreek Hill among all NFL receivers.

You can see all of the revealed Madden 23 ratings here.