For NFL players, there's a special kind of anxiety attached to EA Sports' ever-popular Madden franchise. Sure, it's cool to have the opportunity to play as yourself, especially if you've been playing the game since you were a kid. However, while having control over your virtual persona is a luxury reserved for these athletic elites, it also brings its own unique preoccupation: Suddenly, these guys need to worry about how they're being rated.
NFL rookies are rarely treated as special by the Madden ratings gurus. Even Jadeveon Clowney, who many regarded as one of the most NFL-ready prospects in years, was given a mere 83 overall in Madden 15. This year—as Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Amari Cooper, and others would learn—there are no exceptions. EA Sports got a group of these rookies together to guess at their own ratings; inevitably, they only learned that their number was lower than what they'd hoped.
The most disappointed of the group has to be former University of Miami standout Phillip Dorsett. The Indianapolis Colts rookie wide-out projected a 95 rating for himself; yet he didn't even make the top 10 among rookies. Ouch!
Here's the full top 10, starting with Cooper:
- Amari Cooper, WR, OAK – 82 OVR
- Jameis Winston, QB, TB – 81 OVR
- Todd Gurley, RB, STL – 80 OVR
- Leonard Williams, DL, NYJ – 80 OVR
- Brandon Scherff, OL, WAS – 80 OVR
- Dante Fowler Jr., DE, JAX – 79 OVR
- Melvin Gordon, RB, SD – 78 OVR
- Kevin White, WR, CHI - 78 OVR
- Marcus Mariota, QB, TEN – 78 OVR
- Vic Beasley Jr., DE, ATL – 77 OVR
For more Madden 16 info, be sure to check the Ratings Hub over at EA Sports, where they'll be updating the site with the new ratings for the upcoming game throughout the week.
