‘It’s Just Disrespectful’: NFL Universe Reacts to Madden 21 Ratings

Will a few faulty Madden ratings keep me from buying the latest installment in the series year after year? No, absolutely not. Who am I to even be calling them faulty? They're the experts, anyway.

Still, it's fun to poke fun at some of the real head-scratchers within the rating reveals. I've already done so a couple times. Nick Foles losing the Madden QB battle to Mitch Trubisky is one that I couldn't really fathom. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that Mr. Drop himself, Nelson Agholor, received nearly the same catching rating is Julian Edelman and was tied with CeeDee Lamb.

But who cares what I think? What's even better is to see what the athletes themselves think about their Madden ratings, and most guys don't comment on their ratings when they're happy. Unless, like Stephon Gilmore, you're a part of the 99 overall club.

More often than not, though, guys who are upset about their ratings will let those thoughts be heard. Let's take a look at some of the best reactions.

To be fair, I didn’t transcribe the quote 100 percent correctly. But you’ll understand why when you learn that it was Cam Newton, responding to a Patriots instagram post of their several players who were rated 80 and above. Not featured is quarterback Cam Newton, who received a 78 overall rating.

His response, surrounded by emojis, was ‘THÏŠ ÏŠ ŪÑÄČČĒ₽TÄߣĒ.’ And though he wasn’t great last season and hasn’t played in a game in quite some time, it doesn’t seem fair considering former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski received a 95 overall after his list professional sports appearance came in the WWE.

Yes, Gronk is a 95. And cover athlete and league MVP Lamar Jackson is a 94. Head scratcher, isn’t it?

Speaking of Lamar Jackson, he wasn’t too thrilled about his rating of 94, which was lower than Patrick Mahomes (99) and Rusell Wilson (97) -- not exactly competition to complain about being behind, and Lamar didn’t really complain.

He just gave a sigh, and simply expressed his desire to keep proving to the developers that he’s better.

Deshaun Watson only received an 86 overall, which NFL writer Adam Rank featured in the No. 1 spot of his “Ten most egregiously off-base player ratings” from the game, saying “I'm still trying to figure out how older quarterbacks like Drew Brees (93), Tom Brady (90) and Matt Ryan (87) carry higher overall ratings in 2020 than the 24-year-old Watson.”

Watson agreed with Rank, but in fewer words.

Kyler Murray didn’t show up in the top ten quarterback ratings in the game, receiving a 77 overall grade, which puts him at a tie for No. 20 with Josh Allen, and is an easily disputable figure. But it wasn’t his grade he was upset about. Instead, he felt that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers got snubbed from the top five.

Le’Veon Bell doesn’t like his rating, but he does like the extra fuel and motivation it’s providing him.

If last season was any indication, he may not be worthy of a top-10 running back spot anyway, but based on past history, he could definitely experience a rebound in 2020. And if he does, Madden developers better be keen when deciding how they go about updating this veteran’s rating.

Alvin Kamara is proud to hold many honors and records that begin with "the only running back to..." accomplish some crazy feat including rushing and receiving totals that are unprecedented at the position -- or at least they were, until guys like Kamara and Christian McCaffrey came along.

Still, those feats were barely enough to get him in the top 10 at his position in Madden 21, as he's tied with Josh Jacobs at 88 overall.

While other top running backs like Ezekiel Elliott received high injury ratings, meaning they were not as prone to getting injured, Kamara's ranked among the lowest of the starting running backs. He playfully acknowledged this rating, as well.

Eagles running back Miles Sanders was an electrifying talent in 2019, becoming the only rookie in Eagles history with 800 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards. But, based on how many second-year ratings tend to go, Sanders had a bad feeling about how Madden would evaluate his play.

The Madden Twitter page responded to Sanders, asking him what he thinks he’ll receive, to which Sanders gave a reasonable expectation.

Sanders is an 81, which is lower than guys like Duke Johnson and Derrius Guice. Hmm.

Sanders said Madden was going to do him dirty. The Bears' Tarik Cohen says that the game did do him dirty, specifically in the catching department. For one of the better pass-catching specialists in the league, he definitely has a point.Watch him vent about it here, thanks to the Bears' official Instagram page.

D.K. Metcalf’s blazing 4.33 40-yard dash established him as as good a deep ball threat as any, and he definitely surpassed the expectations of many critics in an awesome 2019 season. And though a 95 speed rating probably isn’t something to get too upset about, it clearly didn’t resonate with Metcalf.

Upon finding out he received ‘only’ a 98, Kittle expressed his disapproval, though we definitely sensed a hint of sarcasm.

“They don’t want me to be great,” Kittle said via the 49ers’ official website. “Just because Christian McCaffrey’s a 99 because he’s beautiful and has biceps the size of my quads doesn’t mean that I can’t also be a 99.”

His mouth dropped upon finding out that he only had an 81 at breaking tackles.

“If Deebo has a higher breaking tackle (rating) than me, that’s just not okay,” Kittle said, before his suspicions got the best of him. “It’s Deebo, isn’t it?

Indeed it is. Deebo Samuel received an 83, to which Kittle casually mentioned that he thought he led the NFL in broken tackles. He’s right, at least for his position.

Teammate Fred Warner reacted to his 71 catching rating with disapproval, though he may have overestimated his abilities by initially guessing that he received a 92, which would have tied him with guys like A.J. Green and Courtland Sutton.

Zach Ertz has long been considered a top-tier tight end in the league,with impeccable catching skills and a type of toughness that can’t be taught. He’s one of four tight ends to break the 90-overall barrier, but he just barely snuck in there and wasn’t too appreciative of the grade.

Maxx Crosby angrily expressed his feelings toward his Madden rating to Levi Damien of Raiders Wire.

“I’m not happy at all. It’s garbage,” said Crosby. “They have me as a 77. And just looking at what they rated some other people, I’m just like ‘all right…I’ve seen some of the stuff and I was just like they’re not even watching football.”

He went on to call his rating ‘disrespectful’ and compared his 77 rating to his teammate Josh Jacobs’ rating of 88.

“Josh 100% deserves it. But I think I deserve it too,” Crosby added. “We both balled out, so why aren’t we both higher? He was up for Offensive Rookie of the Year, I was I think runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, so why am I a 77? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Nope, not a typo. It’s not supposed to say “unhappy.” Packers running back Aaron Jones was genuinely happy to be included in the exclusive 90-and-over rating club at his position, which put him within the top-eight running backs in the league.

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