Today we go through all the QB releases in Madden that have a name attached to them to find out who has the fastest release at different distances.

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So as for my method on how I tested QB releases. I traded players to the Steelers until I got 19 quarterbacks. I edited each of these players to different QB’s throwing motions.

I tested short, medium and long throws.

I recorded each QB throwing each route then watched the instant replay. I went frame by frame from when the QB started his motion to when the ball left his hand. Unfortunately, Madden only outputs in 30 frames per second so I was only able to get it precise down to 1/30th of a second.

We’ll start with long throws. It seems to me every QB has the same mechanics when throwing deep. After running through each QB and them all having the same release times on bombs of 17 frames, I went through and compared mechanics between each player. Sure enough, they are all the same.

(go through mechanics)

But I remembered a unique pump in 15 when I did this testing that isn’t here in 16 when throwing deep. And yes, I did this same recording in Madden 15. Unfortunately, this never became a video in 15 because the file corrupted before I could get all the way through.

So to answer my question I booted up 15 and recorded it. And sure enough, the pump is there. Watch as one hand leaves the ball while the ball is pumped up. So I said, maybe they had unique mechanics for each QB throwing deep in 15 that they don’t in 16. Well, I was wrong. The throw deep animation is different in 15 than 16, but it’s the same for each QB. I gave Gradkowski Brady’s mechanics and Landry Jones Rodgers’ mechanics. They both had the same throw deep technique that Roethlisberger has.

So to sum up throwing long bombs. every QB in Madden 15 and 16 has the same throw deep release time. In Madden 16 that time is just over half a second. Or 17/30th’s of a second to be precise.

On to medium throws. This is where things differ and you see some QBs are faster than others. If you want the fastest release, get Tom Brady. I timed him at 10 frames or 1/3 a second on his release. Most every other QB fell into the 11 to 13 frames time. I have a spreadsheet at the end where you can see all the data yourself. Other notable players were Aaron Rodgers and Ryan Fitzpatrick timed between 10 and 11 frames.

In other notes, I found having to turn your body to the receiver resulted in 2 frames difference. And throwing across your body like a lefty having to throw to the right resulted in a 1 frame penalty.

And I’m not going to claim I discovered and tested all animations for throwing. So some of these QB’s could be better at throwing on the run animations or the myriad of others out there.

But one test I did with a couple of QBs are medium length bullet pass. It surprised me that it only took 10 frames to throw that while short and medium in my test it took them 12 frames. It did seem there was an animation for bullet passes up the field that was quicker than passes to the sideline or short.

As for the short animations, Everyone basically was between 11 frames and 12 with only one guy reaching 13 frames which was Matt Cassel. So everybody gets the ball out similarly fast when throwing short. And I do not know why some short times are longer than the medium times. If you have an idea, let me know in the comments.

And for the solid performers like Brady and Rodgers, I went back and tested them again to make sure I didn’t screw up the first time. They tested the same the second time around.

But if I were to choose a guy, I’d go with Brady. He clearly had the best medium throw release and even though he wasn’t the fastest short, it’s only 1 frame difference between him and the best short. And even though Fitzpatrick had a great time in both short and medium, I don’t want to use Fitzpatrick in MUT.

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