I’ve done silver and gold budget squads but today I take the opposite view. Who isn’t worth the money in Madden Ultimate Team 16? Find out who I think it is. Have any yourself? Put it in the comments below.

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Obviously I’m not going to say bronze cards are bad. We all know that. What I want to talk about are the cards that cost a lot but will not perform well for you. Either they have stats in the wrong spots or their price just won’t justify their production. And obviously avoid buying any 72-74 overall golds to start in your lineup as they’re unreasonably high priced due to their rarity coming from packs.

QB: Season’s Vet 90 overall Eli Manning. 40,000 coins. Tony Romo is less than half the cost and betters Eli in Every single important category except 6 carrying, 1 throw power, and 6 speed. But everything else is in Tony’s favor. The production to price is very slanted in Romo’s favor. But the low priced Winston and Romo are the gold standards for QBs and every one will be compared to those two.

HB: LaDainian Tomlinson is the easy choice since he costs almost 900,000 coins and will offer similar production as Terrell Davis. But from here forward we’ll skip the ridiculously high priced players. For a lower priced player, I just don’t think Arian Foster should be owned an used. Too slow to provide the benefits of his moves. He’s got good carry and decent trucking. But that’s about it. Get someone else like Carlos Hyde’s Shefter’s star and he’ll produce better for you at a cheaper price.

WR: Roddy White’s Captain Card. People are wising up on this thing so it’s price isn’t too high. But I still wouldn’t have it on your team. It doesn’t do one thing really well, which is what you want out of each of your WRs spots. Either someone to go deep and catch jump balls like Brian Finneran, outrun the defense like Perriman, catch the ball in traffic and hang on like Keenan Allen, make moves and get YAC like Cooks and etc. Roddy White just doesn’t do anything amazingly. And for his price you need him to do something. He’s too short to go on the outside and not a great route runner to be you slot. He doesn’t even run block well. I would not acquire Roddy White.

TE: It might be a little soon, but I’m going to say Jared Cook’s 88 overall BCA card. He’s a receiving TE that isn’t extraordinarily fast, He has 76 route running and 77 catch in traffic. He has 94 release but TE’s don’t get jammed, His run blocking is only a 74 which is decent but nothing spectacular. His biggest upside is the 90 spec catch and 6’5 frame. But as of this recording he’s going for 60,000 coins. A big overpay for what he’ll provide your offense. I’d much rather have Jimmy Graham’s 88 card for the same price because he’s got higher jump, 2 inches and much better route running and catch in traffic.

LT: I do not believe Tackles need impact block. Because they will not be in space often except on counters, but those have been severely nerfed this year. On screens they still pass block, on powers they run block. So someone with high impact block usually has worse other stats.

But I’d say the biggest factor in building an offensive line has to be run block. Because if you saw my video on defensive tackle testing, strength played little roll in what was ultimately a battle of the trenches won by the blockshedding statistic. So I would avoid all players with low run block like Eugene Monroe, Ryan Clady, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, And for the more expensive players, Jared Veldheer and I don’t ever think I’ll end up owning Donald Penn’s Captain Card. I’d much rather have Nate Solder’s BCA card.

LG: Josh Sitton. His run block is the lowest of the elite guards at 87. If you run a pass first scheme, then he’s great. But if you’re like me and are more towards the balanced side, avoid low run block.

C: Another Easy choice to skip Will Montgomery’s Season’s Vet card. 40,000 coins for 86 run block? No thank you.

RG: Kyle Long. 88 Run block is nice, but not 68,000 coins nice. The other one’s I’d skip like a rope are Louis Vasquez 79 overall and David DeCastro’s Football Outsiders card. I might end up finding a low strength, high run and pass block team and see how well we do.

RT: David Stewart’s 82 overall is only 1000 coins but he has a 74 run block. Avoid. But of the high price tackles, Sebastian Vollmer seems especially egregious due to his 75,000 coin price tag with only an 84 run block.

Defense

LE: 87 overall Calais Campbell – I don’t know what scheme he fits in. Far too slow for a 4-3, too weak and low blockshed for a 3-4. Avoid.

RE: 86 overall Charles Johnson suffers from the same issue as Campbell. Too Slow, doesn’t hold up well against the run with his 75 block shed.

DT: My Defensive Tackles have to stop the run. That’s why I want them with a high blockshed. Sen’Derrick Marks has an 83 blockshed which is unacceptable. And he’s going for 37,000 coins on the Xbox One. He might be a situational pass rusher with his high power move, but he’s still slower than you’d like for someone to fulfill that roll on your defense. And he’s pricey for how slow he is.

Gerald McCoy’s 88 is the same way as Marks but slower.

ROLB: LInebackers in our toss heavy game need speed above other stats. Especially 4-3 linebackers. 3-4 don’t need it as they are already setting the edge just based on their position. But someone like Tamba Hali, who granted is a 3-4 linebacker, just won’t cut it at 75 speed. That’s not enough to chase down scrambling QBs, his 82 blockshed won’t hold up against the run. bad man and zone he’s no help there. His price is at 8,000 coins. I do not think you should have him on your team.

MLB: More than any sport, Major League Baseball needs to be fast to react to changing environments. Wait, wrong video. Middle linebackers need to be fast to get to the edge. I like to user my MLB so he has to be Nate Askew, Ryan Shazier fast. So any slow MLB is bad here if you are going to user it. And like I said earlier, in a 4-3, even if you’re not usering the position, you still need speed. In a 3-4 it’s a little different. You can have a slow number 2 MLB to stand up to the run while your user is the fast guy getting from sideline to sideline. But, a player that is both slow and bad against the run like Daryl Smith is a mistake to own. He’s listed at just over 8,000 coins but he is someone I suggest staying away from. And Lawrence Timmons is right there with him with how bad his card is. He can’t play coverage like I can’t play fight. I always take it too far.

LOLB: This ones easy and allows me to turn a phrase. Junior Galette is a piece of shit in real life and this game. Slow and bad against the run. 9,400 coins. Pernell McPhee will play similarly rushing the passer but be better against the run with his higher blockshed.

CB: At corner you’d like someone with speed. If they don’t have it, they better be good in zone, because you can hide bad speed easier in zone. And you always like your corner to be tall. Well, 84 overall Brent Grimes has none of these attributes. Slow so he can’t play man coverage, bad zone rating so he can’t do that and he doesn’t have height to make up for it.

As for an elite to stay away from, I’d recommend Brandon Flowers. Slow at 85 speed, and short so he can’t play outside in a zone coverage. His zone rating is good at 90, so maybe he could play in the nickel? Nope, terrible block shed means he’s getting pancaked on runs.

FS: I can’t find too many bad ones here except the obvious 74 overall golds that are far overpriced. I’ve heard Reggie Nelson played bad. But otherwise I want my FS to have as high of play rec and awareness as possible with good speed. Earl Thomas miraculously has low play rec at 82. But he has high speed and zone coverage so he’s a decent card. The one I’d say is outright bad is Glover Quin’s 85 overall card. He’s got an 88 press with 73 man coverage. Just a waste on that mix of skills. His zone coverage is low for a high overall FS. His play rec and awareness are low at 84 and 83. His hit power and tackle aren’t great, his speed is also slow so he can’t play middle field well in a cover 3.

SS: Flashback Donte Whitner is bad for 140,000 coins. Low play rec, awareness so he’s not amazing on his own, low coverage, zone coverage. His positives is his 91 speed and 95 hit power. Not a great user because he’s got bad acceleration, agility, catching and is quite short.

And there you have it, who I think are the worst cards in MUT. Have any yourself? Do you agree with my choices or have these players played well for you? Let me know.

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