Like most football fans, I have a complicated relationship with Madden.
On the one hand, I love Madden. It was instrumental in me learning about football and falling in love with the NFL. I’ve sunk hundreds of hours over the years into franchise mode, role-playing as the GM who would finally bring a Lombardi Trophy to Minnesota. And isn’t gaming all about living out our wildest fantasies?
Like most fans who love Madden, though, I also hate Madden.
The annual exercise of watching EA Sports give Madden the “Landlord Special” by slapping a cheap coat of paint onto a broken, outdated product is exhausting. Every year I tell myself I’m not going to fall for it. Most of the time, I’m wrong.
The Madden rankings are another source of ire for me. Numerically quantifying everything that makes a good football player is a Herculean, impossible task. It will always spark outrage from spurned fanbases. But while I sympathize with how impossible the challenge is, I can’t help but scoff. Incidentally or not, EA’s ratings gurus have upset a lot of fanbases. (I’m here for you, Cincinnati Bengals fans. Ja’Marr Chase as an 87 is a crime against humanity).
But another injustice against a superstar LSU wide receiver needs to be reconciled. The homer in my heart refuses to believe there are five wide receivers better than Justin Jefferson in 2022.
Madden gave Jefferson a 93 overall rating. He’s the sixth-highest rated receiver at his position behind Davante Adams (99), Cooper Kupp (98), Tyreek Hill (97), DeAndre Hopkins (96), and Stefon Diggs (95). They all are excellent players at an incredibly deep position in the league. But I’d argue at least two of them are not better than Jefferson.
We could be salty about the ex-Viking who had 400 fewer yards than Jefferson last season, despite playing with one of the best young quarterbacks on the planet. Or instead, we could focus on the insight gleaned from the Madden evaluators here.
Jefferson is an incredibly well-rounded player. He’s got good speed, is an exceptional route runner, and has excellent hands. His game is defined by his ability to do it all rather than by a single elite element. For example, he’s a great deep threat. But he’s not going to be as much of a game-breaker as Tyreek Hill is running a go route.
And from a pure athleticism standpoint, you could argue that Madden gets it right. Jefferson’s speed and acceleration teetering around 91 make sense. His most elite athletic trait is his agility and change of direction, which is reflected in his 93 and 95 in those categories, respectively. Elite, freakish athleticism has never been Jefferson’s game; it’s been the way he uses his athleticism that sets him apart.
Perhaps the most egregious part of Jefferson’s evaluation is in the route-running categories. Short- and medium-route-running are each only a 92, with deep route running only a 93. I’d love to have the defensive backs across the league weigh in on that as Jefferson breaks off the stem of his skinny post and blows past them.
Ultimately, these ratings paint a picture of a tremendous talent on the cusp of becoming a truly elite player. And from an outsider’s perspective, maybe there’s some truth to that.
Part of Jefferson’s allure is that he’s still ascending. He’s got a perfect skill set to dominate the league. If he can continue to develop that and O’Connell can maximize him in an offensive scheme designed with him in mind, the sky’s the limit.
In a recent interview with Complex, Jefferson has put himself four spots higher than the evaluators at Madden did, placing only Davante Adams above him. But even with that humble tip of the cap to his former division rival, Jefferson said that after this season, he’ll reign supreme as the top wide receiver. These Madden rankings set the stage for the task ahead of Jefferson if he’s going to make his case to be the best receiver in the league.
Jefferson needs to take over games. He needs to be the threat that the entire defense is scheming to beat but still cannot find a way. He needs to elevate the Vikings’ offense to a new level this season.
Jefferson has made game-changing plays over the past two years, plays that stick in the minds of evaluators and analysts who would underrate his greatness. The next step is to turn those game-changing plays into the game-winning plays that make the Vikings legitimate contenders. It would shine an even brighter spotlight on Minnesota’s resident superstar.
