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]

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]

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

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyPhanatic14

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]

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

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]

Quote: Originally Posted by Broncos86

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]

Kickers…

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