Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs, Safeties & Kickers

[Steve_OS]

The Madden NFL 23 player ratings continue to trickle out this week as ESPN revealed the...

Written By: Steve Noah

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[Broncos86]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs

Won't be long before Javonte Williams not only passes Melvin Gordon in rating, but breaks into the 90 OVR realm. Williams with a 94 Break Tackle rating and 89 trucking, phew. IMO, that's a RB a lot of people are going to be trading for. Combine that with some of the changes coming to momentum and whatnot, you're talking about a mean SOB at running back in Madden.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Jamal Adams' 89 Zone Cov rating is the biggest joke of all. John Schneider and Kane are the only 2 people in the world that think Jamal Adams is that good of a player. He has him ranked as the 3rd best SS in Zone Coverage and the dude got a 47 coverage grade from PFF lol

[Hooe]

Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Jamal Adams' 89 Zone Cov rating is the biggest joke of all. John Schneider and Kane are the only 2 people in the world that think Jamal Adams is that good of a player. He has him ranked as the 3rd best SS in Zone Coverage and the dude got a 47 coverage grade from PFF lol

Four thoughts:

1 - the Zone Coverage rating governs instinctiveness, such a player’s ability to break on the QB’s throwing motion, in addition to their ability to relate to receivers spatially while in a zone coverage assignment. Jamal Adams is widely regarded as an instinctive and extremely intelligent player. Ask anyone who studies football about this, they will consistently tell you Adams has a great feel for the game. His weakness has always specifically been man coverage; he is not great at keeping up with slot receivers laterally because he doesn’t have elite short area quickness.

2 - PFF’s coverage grade makes no attempt to distinguish between man coverage and zone coverage. It is unreasonable to use PFF’s solitary coverage grade as a proxy for both skills.

3 - last I was aware, PFF’s completion blaming makes no allowances for the offensive route combination or defensive coverage calls. For example, if the offense calls Sail and the defense calls Cover 3 Sky, PFF’s grading makes no allowance for Adams being conflicted by a high-low stretch of the Sail concept, it only cares that he was in proximity to the receiver when the receiver caught the ball. This lack of context is probably a very bad way to grade how well a defender is holding up in coverage; it is unreasonable to expect a defender to win in a no-win situation.

4 - PFF generally has been talking out of both sides of its mouth with respect to its coverage grades recently. They published a written article this offseason naming Trevon Diggs as the best press-man cornerback in the NFL, but also they gave him a 2021 season coverage grade of 58. Those two evaluations wildly conflict with one another.

Generally, we really need to start approaching these conversations with a little more nuance than “this one subjective number says the player is bad, so he must be bad”.

[UFCMPunk]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

How is McCaffrey still rated so high even though he can't stay on the field? Ratings shouldn't be based on name... just saying.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Generally, we really need to start approaching these conversations with a little more nuance than “this one subjective number says the player is bad, so he must be bad”.

Totally understand where you're coming from and I probably phrased it poorly. The PFF grades to me are helpful when they can confirm what you see while watching the games. Jamal Adams is awful at coverage. He's elite at rushing the QB as a nickelbacker, but the guy is just bad at covering downfield. That's what I see when I watch Seattle and the PFF grade just adds something quantifiable to what I see, which is why I referenced it.

[TecmoZack]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs

Won't be long before Javonte Williams not only passes Melvin Gordon in rating, but breaks into the 90 OVR realm. Williams with a 94 Break Tackle rating and 89 trucking, phew. IMO, that's a RB a lot of people are going to be trading for. Combine that with some of the changes coming to momentum and whatnot, you're talking about a mean SOB at running back in Madden.

Cosign on this. Dude is a BALLER.

He is my must draft in Fantasy.

[Steve_OS]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Kickers…

https://twitter.com/eamaddennfl/status/1549831613042810880?s=21&t=mizDtRvebb1CQiawbahOMA

[drae2]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Justin Tucker is just a 90?? WTF

[Hooe]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Justin Tucker is just a 90?? WTF

Tucker has KPW 99 and KAC 99, so I guess the scale simply doesn’t allow any kicker to be OVR 99 lol.

[TecmoZack]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Justin Tucker is just a 90?? WTF

Should be 100

[brettmickey]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Love Javonte. Glad he’s getting recognized for his break tackle efficiency. I hope he gets a major jump up in workload this season.

[Hooe]

Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs and Safeties

Totally understand where you're coming from and I probably phrased it poorly. The PFF grades to me are helpful when they can confirm what you see while watching the games. Jamal Adams is awful at coverage. He's elite at rushing the QB as a nickelbacker, but the guy is just bad at covering downfield. That's what I see when I watch Seattle and the PFF grade just adds something quantifiable to what I see, which is why I referenced it.

I think this is a spot where more granularity in Madden’s ratings would really help out.

Jamal Adams can absolutely rock it when he’s playing a buzz or curl-flat assignment. Anything where everything is in front of him, he can keep his eyes on the quarterback, and where he is allowed to quickly trigger going downhill; that’s where he’s at his best. This additionally compliments his best skills as well; obviously he can bring the lumber, and he is a great hammer player in run fits to funnel running backs to cut back towards his help, so getting him in the run fit underneath with one of these assignments is generally a great idea.

Put Jamal Adams in a deep third center field assignment, though, and he’s liable to get lost. This is what people are remembering when they think of Jamal Adams being bad in coverage. He is more Kam Chancellor and less Earl Thomas.

Unfortunately, performance in all three of those assignments in Madden - curl flat, hook curl / buzz, and deep middle third - is governed by one rating, the Zone Coverage rating. I guess giving Adams abilities such as Flat Zone KO and Mid Zone KO would not be sufficient enough to make up tanking his ZCV rating to match what he can’t do in a deep third? I honestly don’t know what the correct call would be for the ratings team here.

[SkeeLo15]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs, Safeties & Kickers

Do kicker ratings really even matter honestly? I feel like every kicker feels the same regardless of ratings. Hopefully next year they can come up with new kicking mechanics that really make you feel the difference between the best kickers and average kickers

[noplace]

Re: Madden NFL 23 Player Ratings - Top 10 Running Backs, Safeties & Kickers

Zeke isn't even the best RB on the roster yet he's an 88 after 2 mediocre years. ��

Antonio Gibson is clearly top 10 in speed yet nowhere to be found. Player's Iin the top 10 has slower times ��