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Several days ago, a set of purported player ratings for the upcoming Madden NFL 19 video game leaked on the internet, thanks to a Youtube video posted by one of the game’s testers. A few of the ratings for Green Bay Packers players caught our eye in particular, but perhaps the most notable was the 99 overall rating that was assigned to Aaron Rodgers.
Shortly after the video was published, however, our colleages at Bleeding Green Nation (SB Nation’s Philadelphia Eagles site) spoke to one of the people who actually works on the ratings for the game. According to that individual, the ratings being released are “intentionally false” and “scrambled,” and suggested that the final ratings could be as far off as ten points from what has been released.
That clearly meant that Rodgers’ 99 rating — along with some more head-scratching numbers like Mike Daniels’ 83 — could not be trusted.
Until now, that is, in the case of Rodgers’ overall number. In a press release on Wednesday, EA Sports confirmed that Rodgers will indeed be rated a 99 overall in this year’s edition of the Madden franchise, as they released a list of all seven players who earned that distinction. The other six names are below:
- Tom Brady, QB, Patriots
- Antonio Brown, WR, Steelers
- Aaron Donald, DE, Rams
- Rob Gronkowski, TE, Patriots
- Luke Kuechly, LB, Panthers
- Von Miller, LB, Broncos
In addition to the 99 overall, EA also released several of Rodgers’ component rankings:
- 99 awareness
- 97 throwing power/97 throw on the run/88 deep throw accuracy/96 throw under pressure
- 79 speed
That last number should make Rodgers a more tempting player to use in the game than Brady, as quarterback mobility remains a desirable trait.
(As an amusing aside, the folks at EA dropped Brady’s catching rating from 45 last season to 39 this year after his dropped pass in the Super Bowl.)
EA should be releasing more ratings over the course of the next few weeks in the lead-up to the game’s official release date of August 10th, so keep an eye out.