The Madden NFL video game franchise has been releasing player overall ratings in marketing its 2021 version of the game. One of the biggest surprises of their announcements is how poorly ranked Steelers players are ranked and how the total overall score of the offense will be initially higher than the defense.
Steelers are ranked 9th in Madden 2021.
— Blitzburgh (@SteelBlitzburgh) July 15, 2020
82 Overall
83 Offense
81 Defense#Steelers
Considering the Steelers were an abysmal 27th in points for per game with 18.1 points and the Steelers defense ranked 6th in points per game only allowing 18.9 ppg, perhaps the return of Ben Roethlisberger gave the offense a ratings boost. However, Ben wasn't even listed on the Steelers top ten ratings chart and will have an overall score of less than 82. This means Roethlisberger is pulling the offense’s score down!
Top 10 Steelers Madden ratings:
— UK Steelers (@UKSteelers) July 14, 2020
• David DeCastro - 91
• Cam Heyward - 90
• Minkah Fitzpatrick - 87
• Stephon Tuitt - 87
• Maurkice Pouncey - 86
• JuJu Smith-Schuster - 86
• TJ Watt - 86
• Eric Ebron - 84
• Joe Haden - 83
• Alejandro Villanueva - 82
♂️
The most mind-popping thing right off the top of these rankings is that T.J. Watt is tied for 6th best player on the team with JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster had by far his worst statistical season in 2019 while Watt was the team MVP and was a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Watt also isn't even ranked in the top ten pass rushers in the NFL, despite posting 14.5 sacks in 2019. Considering his grade and that number 10 is Chiefs star Chris Jones with an overall of 92, its likely that Watt isn't even a top-20 pass rusher in the game.
QBs beware of these pass rushers
— ESPN (@espn) July 15, 2020
Thoughts? #Madden21 @EAMaddenNFL pic.twitter.com/brUHA5LcvC
Minkah Fitzpatrick, Steven Nelson, and of course Big Ben are criminally under rated in the game, and their is rumors swirling that super rookies, Devin Bush only has a 72 overall while Diontae Johnson has a 69 overall (Chase Claypool is ranked at 70 and hasn't played an NFL snap).
What’s right and what’s wrong here....? pic.twitter.com/ZSnKdmAgHS
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 16, 2020
Do the Madden game developers live in Cleveland?
What do you think? How should EA sports really ranked the Steelers players? Let us know down in the comments below.