Madden 13 Ravens Player Ratings
Madden NFL 13 has started to release its player ratings for skill positions and some of the top defensive players, and I'm rounding them up for all you Madden junkies.
Below is what I've found so far, but you should know the ratings aren't completely finalized.
Madden is allowing fans to vote on which NFL players epitomize attributes like speed, elusiveness, etc. The winner of each vote will be the highest-rated player for that attribute at their position. The voting date for each position is added to the lists below.
Quarterbacks(complete list), voting July 30 – Aug 3
Joe Flacco: 88 overall, 73 speed, 86 awareness, 95 throw power, 77 deep accuracy (ranked 14 overall)
Curtis Painter: 68 overall, 65 speed, 65 awareness, 86 throw power, 63 deep accuracy
Tyrod Taylor: 67 overall, 87 speed, 52 awareness, 92 throw power, 66 deep accuracy
Running Backs (complete list), voting Aug 6 – 10
Ray Rice:95 overall, 91 speed, 97 acceleration, 84 strength, 75 trucking, 93 elusiveness (ranked 5 overall) Vonta Leach:92 overall, 69 speed, 80 acceleration, 84 strength, 74 trucking, 40 elusivenessAnthony Allen:70 overall, 84 speed, 82 acceleration, 77 strength, 92 trucking, 54 elusivenessBernard Pierce:69 overall, 88 speed, 91 acceleration, 62 strength, 77 trucking, 69 elusivenessDamien Berry: 67 overall, 83 speed, 87 acceleration, 76 strength, 87 trucking, 64 elusivenessBobby Rainey:62 overall, 86 speed, 90 acceleration, 72 strength, 61 trucking, 75 elusiveness
Receivers (complete list), voting Aug 13 – 17
Anquan Boldin: 87 overall, 86 speed, 85 acceleration, 79 strength, 90 awareness, 88 catching (ranked 30 overall)Torrey Smith:80 overall, 95 speed, 97 acceleration, 57 strength, 69 awareness, 83 catching
Ed Dickson:77 overall, 83 speed, 86 acceleration, 69 strength, 75 awareness, 83 catchingDennis Pitta:74 overall, 82 speed, 78 acceleration, 61 strength, 73 awareness, 87 catchingJacoby Jones:74 overall, 93 speed, 88 acceleration, 63 strength, 75 awareness, 74 catchingDavid Reed:67 overall, 90 speed, 94 acceleration, 39 strength, 68 awareness, 73 catchingTandon Doss:65 overall, 84 speed, 88 acceleration, 68 strength, 56 awareness, 85 catchingLaQuan Williams:61 overall, 86 speed, 89 acceleration, 52 strength, 53 awareness, 72 catchingPatrick Williams:61 overall, 85 speed, 80 acceleration, 57 strength, 57 awareness, 65 catchingDavon Drew:57 overall, 76 speed, 79 acceleration, 66 strength, 54 awareness, 74 catchingTommy Streeter:57 overall, 93 speed, 80 acceleration, 57 strength, 40 awareness, 68 catchingDeonte Thompson:56 overall, 97 speed, 95 acceleration, 67 strength, 36 awareness, 66 catchingDevin Goda: 55 overall, 87 speed, 91 acceleration, 73 strength, 37 awareness, 69 catching* *
Top Defensive players (full position lists not released yet,**top 10**),voting* *Aug 20 – 24
Safety Ed Reed: 97 overall (ranked 9 of all defenders)
Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata: 97 overall (ranked 7 of all defenders)
Swelling Not A Concern In Williams' Repaired Ankle
Veteran left guard Bobbie Williams was given a few days off last week by Head Coach John Harbaugh because the offensive lineman was experiencing swelling in his surgically repaired right ankle.
Is that a sign that the 35 year old will be slowed by the injury?
Williams, who signed a two-year contract reportedly worth $2.92 million this offseason, told The Baltimore Sun that the ankle isn't bothering him much this week and the swelling is caused by the breaking down of scar tissue from the surgical procedure. He has played in both preseason games.
"The ankle is actually getting better each day, and that's a plus," Williams told Aaron Wilson. "That's where we wanted to be. The trainers are doing an awesome job. We're going to be ready.
"The scar tissue breaking down, that's normal. We're further ahead of where we wanted it to be. That's positive, that's a good thing."
Offense Stronger Unit Than Defense?
Since the inception of the Ravens, defense has been the backbone in Baltimore.
Defensive leader and icon Ray Lewis was gracious and humble when asked by reporters yesterday if that was still the case.
"At the end of the day, that's why we are called a team," Lewis said. "It don’t matter who takes the lead, who does whatever. We go into games and we win games together. That's the bottom line emphasis."
Lewis probably can't help but be excited to see a budding explosive offense that can hold up its end of the bargain, but you have to believe that man's pride will not allow the defense to look like a bunch of schlubs.
And even though Lewis says he's fine with the offense taking the lead, NFL.com's Shaun O'Hara isn't buying it.
O'Hara says you can't read too much into the preseason, where it appears the offense is becoming the stronger unit. The defensive veterans just want to come out of these exhibition games healthy.
"When you ask me which unit is stronger, it’s definitely the defense," O'Hara said. "Look at the unit as a whole. Yes, they've lost Terrell Suggs. Yes, they have to replace Jarret Johnson at the SAM linebacker position. But this team lost Ray Lewis last season and they went 4-0 despite not having Ray Lewis. …
"You lose Ray Rice [and] that offense struggles. You lose a Ray Lewis, they can replace him."
Rice No. 1 Irreplaceable Back, Flacco No. 5 QB
O'Hara's point plays right into this next section …
Knowing that the main goal of the offseason is to come out unscathed by injuries, Football Outsiders looked at the five most irreplaceable players at the skill positions in the NFL, based not just on the quality of the player, but the quality of his backups.
The analysts determined that Rice is the most irreplaceable running back in the league and Flacco is the fifth-most irreplaceable quarterback. Ravens fans can hardly stand to imagine what the offense would look like without either of those players.
"Rice is the focal point for the entire Baltimore offense, in particular because he's so good as both a runner and a receiver," wrote Aaron Schatz. "Third-round rookie Bernard Pierce is a talented running prospect, but he has very little experience as a receiver and got horrible scouting reports for his pass-protection efforts at Temple. If Rice were to get hurt, the Ravens would be desperate for a veteran third-down back."
Flacco is one of the most durable quarterbacks in the league and hasn't missed a game in his NFL career. But if he were to go down, the two men currently behind him are Tyrod Taylor and Curtis Painter.
"A change from Flacco to Tyrod Taylor would be the opposite of a Newton injury in Carolina. The Ravens would suddenly have a 6-foot-1 scrambling quarterback instead of a 6-6 pocket quarterback," wrote Schatz. "There also isn't much evidence that Taylor would be very good; he's completed just 16 of 39 passes this preseason against opposition backups. And the third-stringer is Curtis Painter. Eek."
Most irreplaceable QBs: Packers' Aaron Rodgers, Saints' Drew Brees, Patriots' Tom Brady, Panthers' Cam Newton, Flacco.
Most irreplaceable RBs:Rice, Browns' Trent Richardson, Raiders' Darren McFadden, Chargers' Ryan Mathews, Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew.
Quick Hits
- Autographs are so 20th century. Egraphs are the new alternative. [The Carroll County Times]
- @GerrySandusky: A point of improvement for the Ravens this week: completions to receivers. The Ravens had the fewest completions to WR’s in NFL 2011: 115. [Twitter]
- @Ravens: In another note, former #Ravens DL Larry Webster (now the head coach at Poly) brought his players out today. [Twitter]
- @BryanHall68: Heading to Best Buy later so I can get my bro @BryantMckinnie a IPod for the game... [Twitter]
- @vleach44: Out having dinner with @MichaelOher could not find no one else to have dinner with me. [Twitter]
- @MichaelOher: last time I cancel other plans for a loser teammate [Twitter]
- @vleach44: Well @MichaelOher responded so fast to my text about dinner, only thing he was doing was staring at his walls. I kept him from going crazy. [Twitter]
- @MichaelOher: @vleach44 going into his 2nd year and still have no friends I didn't know I would be doing charity work for my teammates lol [Twitter]
- @TorreySmithWR: I'm terrible at this new madden...I'm not challenging anyone haha [Twitter]
- And with all the Madden buzz today, how do we not revisit the goose-bump inducing ad with Ray Lewis talking about leaving your legacy. I need to listen to this thing every day when I wake up. [EA Sports/YouTube]
