EA recently revealed the top 13 rookies for Madden NFL 15, with Houston Texans' linebacker Jadeveon Clowney coming out on top with an overall rating of 83, the best among all first year athletes.
Clowney, the first overall draft choice, clocks into Madden NFL 2015 with 95 hit power, making him "the ultimate weapon" in the Texans' defensive strategy. Tied in overall score but coming in behind Clowney is guard Greg Robinson of the St. Louis Rams. In third place is the Oakland Raiders' Khalil Mack with 81 overall points, with fourth going to Jake Matthews of the Atlanta Falcons, also with an overall score of 81.
All the stats are decided upon by EA Tiburon employee and Madden ratings "Czar" Donny Moore, who has done player stats for Madden since 2002. He tells Joystiq that player stats don't come out of thin air, so he starts by looking at scouting reports for college players entering the NFL draft. Using resources like ESPN Insider and Sporting News, he creates athletic benchmarks. Each number goes into a formula that the developers use to match up to the Madden player ratings system.
Over the course of a season, players may increase or drop in their overall player rating score depending on their performance in the real world. Moore watches Sunday Night Football with notepad in hand, taking notes of what players are making big plays or who is struggling. Those performances go into weekly player updates, so that the virtual stars of Madden as closely mimic their real-life counterparts as possible.
One good example of how the system works is Victor Cruz and Madden NFL 12. At the start of the season, New York Giants player Cruz had an overall Madden NFL 12 player rating in the 60s, nearly as low as a rating can be. By the end of the season and after the Giants become Super Bowl Champions in no small part thanks to his help, Cruz sat at the top of the player ratings heap with an overall score of 88.
With that in mind, expect the ratings for this year's rookies to rise and fall as the reason progresses. Developer EA Tiburon will be releasing regular player ratings updates for Madden NFL 15 over the next few weeks. EA's latest football title kicksoff August 26 for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3, and features newly designed defense that pushes players to learn more about football strategy as they play.
