I really can't wait to see what happens when the tuning is done so that initial momentum impacts the momentum of the Pro-Tak tackle once it begins...
I feel like a lot of times when you're watching the animations at full speed something just looks 'off' and you can't really put a finger on it. Then everyone starts breaking down the animations in detail and saying "they need to jostle more" or "they're just hugging" because those are the things that look wrong at first glance.
In my opinion, the majority of that 'off' feeling comes from the instantaneous changes in momentum (i.e. Brandon Jacobs coming to a halt). At full speed, our brain's visual systems are much more able to quickly assess that the momentum change was wrong than to be able to catch errors in the fine intricacies of the animations themselves. Thus, even if they continue to just hug and chop their feet a little bit robotically, I feel that once the momentum is accounted for correctly, it will all of a sudden look and feel a lot more 'right'.
I first noticed this when people complained about the robotic-ness of the run animations. I remembered that the running looked and felt perfectly natural in Madden 04 (which, admittedly, I still play), so I went back and took a look. There's nothing spectacular, or 'cartooned-up', or particularly great about those animations. But when you play the game, the players accelerate and turn with proper momentum and lean, and thus it doesn't set off that flag in your brain that it looks 'robotic'; it feels natural.
So yeah, basically, can't wait 'til the momentum factoring is in. I'm pumped. Also, to the people saying that the animations are the exact same every time once there's a pile of people: Ian has stated that they have basically zero animation variety in the system at the moment and that they're going to drastically expand that before release.
Good job, Madden team.