[DonkeyJote]

A very, very long time ago (I'm talking Madden 03 era, and even earlier), by default the #1 receiver lined up on the right, and the #2 on the left. That's because Madden, as is the case now, did left/right for all the positions, rather than strong side/weak side as most teams do irl.

When they do positions, EA assumes the formation will be strong right, with the TE to that side. So, in the old days that left the Z/Flanker on the right by default and X/Split End on the left. In the 90s, a lot of WRs primarily played the Z, such as Jerry Rice. So, EA made the WR1 go to the right, which would make them the Z in a strong right formation.

Starting in the late 90s, and then really in the 00s, what teams really wanted in a WR changed. Everyone wanted the really tall, powerful, jump ball receiver. Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Plaxico Burress, etc. And those guys tended to play more X. Eventually (I don't remember what year, probably like 2010 or something) EA adapted and moved the WR1 to the left. But they didn't adjust the corners, so #1 corner still lines across from where EA put the #1 Receiver over 20 years ago.

I enjoy this game quite a bit, but my biggest disappointment is that they didn't take the time to fix these very basic level flaws. Would have been so nice to have Sam and Will Linebackers instead of Right and Left. Would have been nice to have NT, IDL, and Edge instead of DT, DE, and OLB, which mean very different things in odd fronts vs even. And in college especially, it'd have been nice to have a boundary and field corner, since that's how a lot of college teams do it with the wider hashes.

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