Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Madden 09 Player Ratings: AFC North

A link to the new Madden 09 Rankings have come out and I am intrigued by many of the ratings. Many are spot on and others are just...well not so on the spot. Here is a breakdown of some of the ratings. http://www.pastapadre.com/2645/madden-09-player-and-team-ratings

Pittsburgh Steelers














This may not be final, but I do like what I see here. Roethlisberger has a 95 overall and as long as he has good Throwing Power I will be happy. Considering that Willie Parker was the leading rusher until he got hurt I think he deserves a little better than a 93 overall. Ward and Holmes deserve higher ratings. Unfortunately the O-line looks about right, but so does Miller. I like that people are giving Aaron Smith the respect he deserves. Anthony Smith should be higher. He got picked on in the Pats game, but played well on many other occasions. He is largely responsible for the Bengals aerial attack not dominating the Steelers. Lamar Woodley looks about right, but he may get upgraded in an update. PS: Where is Lawrence Timmons?

Cleveland Browns















Derek Anderson may deserve a higher rating, not much higher, but still better than 88. Jamal Lewis is a 90 overall and while that seems low, his power running will be higher than most RBs. Stallworth deserves a higher rating, but Braylon Edwards is perfect. I think Winslow is right. The Offensive Line for Cleveland is phenomenal, as it is in real life. I will be interested to see in the next few days whether Bentley will deserve a higher rating. The defense looks about right. The safety corps could use some improvement, but overall the Cleveland Defense looks about right.

Baltimore Ravens















Troy Smith got screwed over in this projection. Troy Smith put on a decent showing at the end of the season that was a hell of a lot better than Kyle Boller. Also, he has proven he can play in the NFL unlike Brady Quinn who hasn't but has an 82 overall rating! Smith, who bested Quinn for the Heisman, deserves better. The rest of the offense looks about right. We'll see if Ogden stays around another year however. The Ravens Defense looks fearsome as ever, but justifiably so. Overall Baltimore looks about right, minus Troy Smith who got egregiously wronged.

Cincinnati Bengals















Carson Palmer is a good QB. He leaves his receivers out to dry and I, and statistics, say that Roethlisberger is a better QB. I don't think Palmer deserves that high a rating. Rudi Johnson had a bad year and did not deserve to drop that much in his overall rating. The receiver corp is just right. Utecht might deserve a higher rating and the oline looks about right. Unfortunately the Bengal defense is pretty close to reality. Leon Hall may deserve a little higher rating, but overall I think EA got it right.

The AFC North is going to have a rough season with their ridiculously difficult schedules. I think that they can handle it, I only hope that the difficulty of the year does not hurt their ratings in Madden 10. However, in Madden things will be interesting. User skills can make up for poor rankings. Any player can make any team dominant, it is just a matter of will power...and careful use of the precision passing.

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