Back when a friend of mine and I played Franchise mode on Madden 03, Cunningham was in the default rosters [pre-internet roster updates.] We wanted to be "the worst teams in the game" and Atlanta and the Texans were the lowest rated by OVR team ratings. I took Huston. I also took Cunningham to be my back up QB and made the joke, calling him my "Carr" insurance. As luck would have it, week 1 against the Cowboys near the end of the 1st quarter, David Carr goes down for what would end up being 11 weeks. Cunningham takes over and he ended up becoming league MVP that year. I also had traded the Lion for a favorite receiver of mine, former SF 49ers Tai Streets to be my #3 man on 3rds downs like in real life. I also made a move with the Titans for Frank Wycheck. So, rookie Andre Johnson with Frank Wycheck at TE and a 3rd down target I could trust, I was tearing it up offensively. We lost in the first round of the playoffs. When David was healthy, I told him to ride the bench like I should have from the start with a rookie QB.
Now, since then, Vernon Davis has been my man. Since his rookie year in Madden 07, Vernon has been the best TE in Madden. If I take my default rosters and take Davis [which I obviously still have my 07 and play it from time to time] and only raise his Run Blocking from it's default 53 or so up to a still low 68, his OVR rating shoots up from 86 to 93 OVR, and that
just makes him tied as the 10th best run blocking TE in football, where in real life experts are calling him #1 and have for a few years. Vernon weaknesses are hard to determine in Madden. His attitude was one weakness that didn't change until Singletary. He was also hurt for a large part of his first two years in the league, but not in Madden. In Madden, he was better than Alex Smith let him be. You had to go into training camp, or throw a lot of short accurate passes in the first 5 weeks to get Alex's throwing accuracy to raise in the progression [for week 5] high enough to get Davis the ball deep on those play action flag routes. Once Alex could hit Davis in Stride on Flag Routes and over the top on Texas plays, it was over. Nobody could cover him. Too fast for line backers, too big for corners to tackle.
That doesn't mean I went 16-0 in my games, or that Davis got a million trillion TDs, but playing on adjusted All-madden like sliders, Davis would often come through in the clutch for me many times. Him and Gore would get me at least a TD each in a game. in those close games, that was sometimes just enough to get the edge. maybe a big catch down field to get my into FG range? I know RMoody is no longer here at OS, but he told me how he would trade for Davis to get him on his Colts and tear it up.
Anyone who didn't know about or use Vernon Davis all these years was really missing out.