The Drive with Jody Oehler

The Drive with Jody Oehler

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What Did Madden Ratings Get Right and Wrong about Cardinals?

Its July 15th and I'm assuming you are bored at work, at home or like I was over this past weekend, stuck inside a hotel room with a rotating cast of napping humans.

Either way, there's not a lot going on after the rush of the NBA's insane offseason and the occasional flicker of a baseball trade rumor, we are in the dog days of summer.

So I'm going to spend some time analyzing the player ratings for a video game's 2019 version of a team that hasn't taken the field for a single snap.

Which Cardinals players Madden got right:

  • Patrick Peterson (92) - The highest rated at 92, P2 has been the best cover corner in the NFL for the past few seasons and while his PED suspension has changed his narrative a bit, he's still the best player on the Cardinals roster.
  • Larry Fitzgerald (84) - Something about 84 feels perfect for Fitz. Rock solid, still capable of putting up strong numbers but not likely to dominate a game. In his 16th season, Fitz is still getting the respect he's earned from all corners of the football world.
  • Terrell Suggs (83) - If you play in the league a long time and are still productive, Madden is going to tip their cap to you. Suggs is still getting it done sacking the QB and Madden rewards him with a strong 83, one spot above Chandler Jones, amazingly.
  • Corey Peters (76) - Peters rankings is the perfect work of a video game algorithm. Dependable, professional and unspectacular. Good job algorithm.
  • Haason Reddick (74) - It actually feels a little high but the reason he's on my right list is his "Awareness" rating is his lowest attribute and for a guy who has routinely found himself struggling to dissect plays, it felt right.

Which Cardinals players Madden got wrong:

  • Marcus Gilbert (84) - There's a 12 point difference between Gilbert and the Cardinals other starting OT DJ Humphries. Gilbert has missed 20 games the last two years and has only played a full 16 game season twice in his 8 year career. In other words, he's just an older version of Humphries, not a significant upgrade.
  • Chandler Jones (82) - Whoever is responsible for this rating must be a disgruntled MMA fan who has taken his or her frustration of Chandler's brother out on Chandler himself. A premier pass rusher who has put up double digit sacks the past four seasons and was a DPOY candidate in 2017, Jones could've been the highest rated Cardinal and easily should be in the 90's. Likely the most egregiously wrong player rating of any NFL player in Madden 19.
  • Kyler Murray (73) - There's no video game QB who has ever come close to Randall Cunningham, aka QB Eagles, in Tecmo Bowl but Michael Vick in his early Madden years came close. Murray has all the tools to be a very good NFL QB and just as importantly his video game potential is off the charts.
  • Chad Williams (70) - Chad Williams may want to buy every copy of Madden 19 he can afford because it may be the last time he's ever in a video game.
  • Keesean Johnson (67) - A good bet to be the Cardinals best rookie WR but ranked below Hakeem Butler and Andy Isabella.


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