NFL players often complain to EA Sports about their Madden ratings when it comes to attributes like speed, but I had no idea there’s a subset of complaints that come in every year about stuff that most people at home will never actually get to see or use.
This Banner Society story details a long list of NFL players (most of them rookies) who, despite making a living playing one position, insisted on getting good stats for another position, with anecdotes provided by the man in charge of Madden’s ratings, Dustin Smith.
Take Patriots DS Chase Winovich, who fancied himself as a high school QB (even though he wasn’t), and so asked EA Sports “Are you guys gonna give me some quarterback stats? Is that unethical to give me, like someone who doesn’t play quarterback, quarterback stats?”
After finding high school game tape of an announcer saying that Winovich should take some snaps, he’s now listed in Madden 20 with 51 throw power and 35 short accuracy.
Then there’s Raiders WR Hunter Renfrow, who threw two passes for for two yards in college and punted once for 42 yards. He now, in addition to decent receiving skills, has 44 throw power and 41 short throw accuracy.
Not every weird stat is the result of complaints, though. Freshly un-retired QB Josh McCown has a vertical rating of 90, which seems insane, but also makes sense because EA saw this video of the 40 year-old getting up there playing basketball.
There’s loads more of these odd little stats over at Banner Society.