People aren’t punished by bad decisions enough. Too often do I see a defender swat a catchable pass or passes into coverage being caught or harmlessly falling to the ground
High point passes are too powerful
Force defenders don’t work upfield enough against outside runs. They get hooked too much against stretch
Blocking still has a lot of issues. Guys run right by targets all the time. WR’s miss blocks frequently and are downfield doing nothing. Users can do a 360 semi-circle and get out of a guard hitting them.
Double teams are beat too easily in comparison to a 1 on 1 win chance on the pass
WR scramble drill isn’t great – they frequently don’t go to the green areas of the field
Shading doesn’t work well or intuitively
-highlighting a player doesn’t work
If we know a play is being run, we don’t always have the tools to stop it outside of usering. Zones can’t cover some routes and often times those routes beat man coverage too.
-Crossers for example.
Zones are still spot drop and don’t recognize players running near them very well
Zones don’t react to to playmaker
Spins don’t fumble on big hits. Last year the cut stick was the counter to the spin, that doesn’t work to cause fumbles in 19.
Linebacker pursuit on runs and recognizing runs
ID the mike doesn’t work like intended. We were sold that it should block the guy you ID
but it doesn’t work like that, you oftentimes need to identify others in order to pick up
Blitzes. Like pick up looping linebackers by ID’ing the DT. -I’ve seen some solutions that ID the mike should ID who the RB needs to pick up
Deion Sanders and other low hit power guys can hit stick tight ends and send them backwards
Weight doesn’t seem to matter much
Players don’t animate and go for balls over their head, they just stand there and watch as it sails right past them. More of an issue with CPU players now, users animate more since it was patched.
It feels like we have a lack of controls on animations. For example, after you get the break sack RNG, your QB just seems to stand still a lot of times and wait for a second hit.
-after an interception your WR stands still and holds his head.
-The swat doesn’t seem to work as well this year and agg catches have started to happen
more, that’s fine if you want an NFL simulator but you’ve told us you want a competitive
game with no aggressive catches. Let us know the direction forward for the game
The interception camera is bad and you trip too much after INTs
Certain red chems like unfakeable and and footsteps don’t seem to work consistently. And it feels like the Red chems aren’t very well balanced as there are some that provide a lot of value like playmaker and deep route running and absolutely change the meta and it feels like the defense wasn’t given the tools to counteract those when they were put in the game
The Meta gets stale and needs to be looked at frequently. Currently NE offense dominates. I think it needs to be a balanced product between formations and playbooks. If something starts to dominate high end play or play in general, EA needs to address the meta as fast as companies like Epic does with Fortnite
Desynces are still an issue and I disconnect from games where I’m not dropping any frames
Deep zones don’t play passes near them like a streak right at a safety will a lot of times have them standing still.
Zones sometimes break away from passes but that’s more of an issue with lower zone guys. Still looks unnatural like C route breaks from last year
There is still a lot of confusion in the community what many stats do and if some stats even work
-A “ratings bible” would be nice. I would be willing to sit down with someone from the team for an afternoon and knock it out if needed.
Screens leave a lot to be desired this year. Only a few select ones truly work.
Too easy to have kick return touchdowns
Spin is too powerful, give us more left stick control to miss tackles and take away the heat seaker. If dudes miss, they miss. Square us up or pay the price
If you saw my last video on what I like and dislike about MUT 18 so far, good, thanks for watching guy. This video builds on that one so you might want to check that one out first. And if any EA guy is out there and you’d rather read than listen to my shrill voice go through it. I’ll put the script on my website and link it below.
Off the bat it’s crazy the amount of suggestions I’ve had in old vids that have made it to the actual game of Madden. Outside of the standard glitches and balance needs I and many others have mentioned, in past videos I’ve asked them to add Draft Champions, Salary Cap, Objectives for yards, ID the Mike, A casual MUT H2H mode (which they ended up removing) and many others. Just go back and watch my old suggestion videos. It’s kinda neat. So we know they’re listening to the community’s feedback, which is really nice and hopefully they continue to moving forward.
But on to the suggestions and ideas for things they can do going forward:
Give us something to do in game outside of grinding solos or head to head. Remember when we could make throwback packs, or random packs through trade in sets? We got flashback packs now but there are only a dozen players or so there. And they constantly raise the price of them as the player prices decrease. That’s a shitty merchant. For examples of things to do outside of grinding solos and head to head, look at what MLB The Show did with their conquest mode. It’s a part of their solo grind but it’s not 100% focused on baseball, it’s a game of Risk mixed with baseball. Very innovative.
Don’t copy that exactly but Madden needs something like that. I’ve suggested in the past a card game with binders and the cards we have in it. Some sort of 501 where you and your opponent/the computer play out cards and whoever has the last card to get to 501 without going over wins. Maybe a blackjack or poker clone. I could think of 10 card games off the top of my head with varying depth to put in this game. And it doesn’t necessarily just card games, you can mix in other game elements to help flesh out the depth of MUT. And we’ll get into that in more depth going forward.
Quicksell sets need to come back. Gold and silver masters were really nice. Something new to drive up the price of pack trash is needed.
Look at what youtubers are doing that get good views and try and incorporate it into your game. I think the obvious choice is to put a spin the wheel type pack in the game. Where you buy a roll of the wheel and it has various options on the wheel. Then whatever it lands on you get. Similar packs were in the game in the past and they were decent, you just need the wheel animation to make it cooler. And have random rewards on the wheel. So like one spot instead of just a pack, make it dynamic, like a picture of 90 Antonio Brown.
Another thing that’s pretty big on youtube is trivia. A trivia mini-game would be nice. Look at muthead’s trivia game for inspiration on something to do. Muthead also had raffles and currently has pick’ems that are fun to enter for some. I guess the pick’ems are similar to your predictor sets so you kind of have that covered. But I will say Madden 15’s Coin Up promotion where you can sell the bets was far superior to predictor just because of the fact that someone can go all in on one.
How about some loading screen flavor like something as stupid as watching your cards vs. your opponents vibrate on a virtual representation of the old electric football game as a loading screen. I think that would be cool to see and a nice change from the static images we get now. Lot of things you can do with loading screens.
A mini-game where you try to throw cards into a hat. If you get a card in the hat you get a reward like an elite player pack or something. Needs to be a game that’s tough to automate though. And any missed cards you lose that card.
But I think there needs to be a “tentpole” event in this game. The biggest happenings in Madden is the launch, Christmas and the Super Bowl. I think EA should aim for some huge update every year the Monday after the Conference Championship game to coincide with the hype around the biggest game of the year. You need something to get back on to video game blogs and not just the standard “Madden Predicting the Super Bowl” type stuff we get every year. As to what that tentpole event is, that’s on you but I’ve provided the idea of a Tavern Brawl type of game mode where you vary the rules every week.
Moving on, I would institute a weekly schedule highlighting each mode. This is directly stolen from Tuesday night drafts last year:
Monday for MUT Squads bonuses to coins. Like a double reward day or some other draw.
Tuesdays are TOTW so kind of a big content drop already and that’s probably enough.
Wednesday should be Salary cap bonuses similar to MUT Squads Monday
Thursday we can something similar to Tuesday night drafts again. But the drafts in 18 are already stacked with high overalls so do a half priced draft day or something. This should be the day each week you update draft champions.
Friday-Sunday is Weekend League so the focus in already on H2H.
I think Play a friend needs a coin reward. Maybe like 2,000 coin reward for each game played with a limit of twice a day. Just some incentive for us to play our friends online.
Pack animations need to improve. For such a central part of the game they have such little payoff even if you pull a stud. FIFA has walkouts, I’ve suggested in the past you have real life highlights of the players when you pull an absolute beast. Like Sean Taylor destroying the punter.
More coaches to provide boosts for specific positions. I think there should be a ton of items in the game to help boost your team, you should be able to customize everything. Like say you get long cleats from nike, you get plus blockshed but lowered agility. Now I’m not sold on the lowered stats but maybe a mix would be good. As for customization of the uniform in general, I only want it if it affects stats but I know others would like it just to have it.
Chemistry needs a big improvement. For example chem boosts to guys for the colleges they went to or states they were born in. But I know they said they don’t want chem boosts to affect competitive Madden too much, which I think is terrible for many reasons but I won’t get into that right now.
University jersey’s are wanted in MUT. You got it for longshot this year, get as many as you can for next year.
I still think a Tavern Brawl kind of mode where the developers change the rules on a weekly basis would be cool. Like one week is 7 on 7, the next is pauper mode where you can only use silvers, next is low gravity, or no running, or no passing, next is gameplay sped up 50%, WRs at all positions, Vision cone or the other power ups from the past, college OT rules, basically a permanent mode kind of like Most Feared Enraging but different things each week. Make it casual so 2 minute quarters with a pack reward for the first game won or something. More for fun than rewards. Can be with pre-built teams or ones that we need to assemble on our own. For example, rebuilding teams and squad builders are pretty huge on youtube. How about some sort of themed squad week? Like all-time Texas Longhorns against all time Oregon Ducks. Or maybe a pick your college week.
How about a gotta catch them all set? Collect every core card in the game and you get some sort of insane card like the first 99 overall card. I don’t think that set should come out until January though since some core elites are still pretty pricey and a 99 at some positions right now would break the game. Could do something similar for silvers and golds but that’s very close to the gold and silver masters of previous years, which I really liked.
How about being able to set your coach adjustments outside of a game in MUT? It’s a minor quality of life fix. But being able to set kickoff and kickoff return would be nice too. Along with other substitutions for specific formations so you don’t have to do it at the start of every game. Again, kind of minor but a quality of life thing.
Practice Mode with the MUT Team would be nice. Would be kind of cool to import a friend’s MUT team to practice against.
Rent a players were nice, I’m not sure if the community would accept them seeing as how much we hate limited use cards so probably best not to poke the bear with rent a players but I think overall it’d be pretty neat. Talking about the bear, it’s weird how angry so many people are, like not just dissatisfied, but downright angry at a game they can easily discard. Glad I’m not a Madden dev right now.
Moving forward, I heard you got a new economist at EA for the market this year. When I played Eve Online, their economist put out a quarterly report on the market. Something similar to that would be really neat to see for MUT. Google it if you want to take a look at some of them and the stats that he provided.
Next, allow local multiplayer for solo challenges. Like if you want to casually play the game with a friend on the same console, let us. Not sure how high on the priority list this should be though since it’s more nice to have than need to have.
You need to show traits on cards and get us a detailed accurate blog on them and thresholds. 100% this should be the top priority right now. You should do something similar with QB release times. Deep, middle and throw short should be an attribute say out of 60. Basically how many 60th’s of a second it takes to release the ball since that’s the frame rate. Make sure that blog includes out of position penalties and how much stats go down. Knowing the overall algorithm would be cool and pack odds also nice to know. But I know it’s a cold day in a hot place before we know those so it is what it is.
Are you guys doing that no stat over 99 bullshit again this year? You haven’t communicated it to us players yet so if so, scrap that and go crazy with stats after the Super Bowl. And on that, make sure stats over 100 matter. Like I don’t want my 101 speed player to be the same speed as 99.
By the way, where has Leon Sandcastle been? Why not do more fun things like that? I wasn’t around when he was in the game but people speak of him fondly. I don’t know if that’s just nostalgia or not but why not? Talking about nostalgia, why not have the backyard football kids in the game? Get me some Pablo Sanchez action.
I feel like power up players could have been done better. Like there’s no story or reason outside of an ability chem and some +1’s or 2’s. We need a better connection to these players, look at the youtubers doing adventures/story modes with these players. So instead of adding these guys just to sets to upgrade them, you should have made it like pokemon and if they got enough experience in your lineup you could evolve them to their power up form. Then if you wanted to sell, just devolve and list on the market. On that note going forward you should put a deconstruction set in the game to un-power up the previously auctionable cards.
Next, could you put customizable banners in stadiums to show off how many super bowls we’ve won? How about on the top 3 screen you show some of their achievements like the aformentioned SB wins or top weekend league placement?
To extend that further, how about something as you get into the game to show your opponets top 3 plays on each side of the ball and playcall frequency? Maybe their playbooks, and the other stats you track for the online H2H leaderboards?
How about gold shoes to players you’ve won 100 games with in your lineup? You need to have some swag that’s locked behind skill or achievement. Something to show off to others, to flex on the haters and opponents.
On that note, how about stadium upgrades through mut coins or some sort of level rewards? This might be better to start 19 with but have everyone start with a high school field with one stand for fans, then the more you achieve in game the more you can add on to it through unlocks and purchasable upgrades. Those add-ons are what generate the daily login revenue. So you go from 500 coins a day with the standard stadium to being able to get 10,000 coins a day with the maximum stadium. Something like that to replace the daily quicksell or to be the minimum threshold.
Finally Treasure goblin unlocks – In Diablo there are random enemy spawns that if you’re able to kill the treasure goblin, you get much better loot than normal. Having a random H2H game or solo ahead of time spit out something that says if you win this you get 20,000 or 50,000 coins would be a pretty nice random hidden bonus. I think the solo could be it’s own beast like instead of the regular solo, you have an option to do the treasure goblin solo instead for the 20k in place of the one you queued up, if that’s possible.
But those are my suggestions for things to look at for MUT going forward. Let me know in the comments if you guys have suggestions. Thanks for watching, call to action and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Today I’m going to go through rookies and whether it would be smart to invest in them to make the sets for next year’s dynamic ratings. So we need to project both their playing time and if they are going to be productive for their teams. Their Madden rating won’t go up without both.
And make sure to check out rookie ratings in the base game here. Take every one of those base overall ratings and subtract about 6 points or so to get their starting MUT rating.
Jared Goff – QB
According to ESPN’s staff writer Nick Wagoner, Jared Goff will be the opening day starter. They said they are re-vamping the passing offense this year which would make sense with the investment they just made in Goff. But we’ll see if Tavon Austin, Kenny Britt and Lance Kendricks can be the guys Jared Goff wants them to be. It would be surprising to say the least if his production as a rookie QB puts him among the league’s best. Invest here with high skepticism.
Rating: 3 (1-5 with 5 being the best bet)
Carson Wentz – QB
He might not be active on game day since Philly has a three QB carousel. Wentz is a long term project as talked about by Eagles staff. Bradford is number one for the Eagles right now and Chase Daniel is the highest paid backup in the league. He’s paid better than a lot of starters right now. Both Bradford and Daniels would have to be injured for Wentz to see the field. Not a smart set to invest in. But then again a lot of us invested in beanie babies so do what you want.
Rating: 1
Ezekiel Elliot – HB
Girlfriend problems but it’s been said that she’s trying to blackmail him. I wish I was worthy of blackmail, that’s my kink. We’ll see how that turns out but in football news it’s been reported that he’s already earned the number 1 spot over McFadden and Morris. Big props to McFadden’s broken elbow earned from trying to save his phone from falling. Hashtag just Dallas things.
Rating: 5
Derrick Henry – HB
Backing up DeMarco Murray at the moment. Either Murray is ‘Dallas Murray’ and Henry is only a support player getting 5-10 touches a game or Murray is ‘Eagle Murray’ and Henry takes the reins early on and gets 15-20 touches. If the latter Henry will be an okay investment with the only concern being that the Titans line is one of the worst in the league. I’m not overly optimistic about anyone running behind it like I’m not overly optimistic anyone will remember the Titans this year.
Rating: 2
Corey Coleman – WR
He’s the starting WR in Cleveland who stands 5’11 and 190 pounds. WR’s that are good in Madden are tall and fast. He’s not tall but he’s fast as he ran a 4.37 at his pro day. His starting speed should be 93 or so which is valuable. But will he be productive and will his stats rise during the season? How much do you trust Josh McCown and RG3 to get him the ball? RG3 is a better deep ball guy so if you get Coleman hope RG3 gets the keys to Cleveland as Coleman goes streaking as well as the best of them. For me I trust the situation about as much as I would Adrian Peterson with my kids.
Rating: 3
Braxton Miller – WR
It’s hard to see him making a major impact on the field next year. But he’s fast and that’s valuable in Madden. His projected lack of targets makes him a hard sell if you are looking for him to make plays and improve through the year. So take him if you want a playmaker early on but don’t expect his value to hold steady or go up through the year. He’s like a gas station burrito, great for a quick fix but you won’t be too happy with yourself a little down the line.
Rating: 2
Laquon Treadwell – WR
He’s slow and even though he might get targets in Minnesota, slow WR’s have no place in Madden unless they can block well. HIs 58 run blocking on his 95 overall card doesn’t bode well for his Madden 17 card. I would pass on this set like we pass on Grandma’s potato salad. Get me sick once, shame on you, get me sick twice, I won’t get sick again.
Rating: 1
Hunter Henry – TE
What a great name. It’s no Hannah Hunt but it’s close. Madden’s not in love with his run blocking but he’s got great athleticism. Will he overtake Antonio Gates to get a bunch of targets, yards and TD’s as a rookie? It’s within the realm of possibilities with his skill set. I don’t know if the chances of that happening are particularly high.
Rating: 2
Ronnie Stanley – LT
Offensive tackles coming out of the draft have not performed particularity well in recent years. The Ravens have one of the best right sides in the league in Zuttah, Yanda and Wagner. The loss of Kelechi Osemele hurts the left side. So Stanley gets the starting nod and has as good of a chance at any rookie to provide production.
Rating: 4
Laremy Tunsil – RT (in Madden)
He’s moving to guard this year from his position of tackle in college. I’m not high on interior linemen making enough noise to move up or down ratings. Too bad his coaches can’t pay for his Madden rating to up for us.
Miami had a bad o-line last year but it does look a little better this year. I’m not a fan of investing in guards and I think you’d have to be in a gas mask of smoke to think he’d be a good one to invest in.
He’s not even in the NFL and is already involved in two scandals. At least it makes for easy jokes. And I’ll always go for cheap laughs.
Rating: 2
DeForest Buckner – LE
A 3-4 RE moving onto a team he’ll retire from. You can take that either as he’s really loyal or he’ll be gone before his rookie contract is up.Him, Armstead and Ian Williams should provide a decent front 3 in their 3-4 scheme. He’ll start at the beginning of the year and should be productive enough in the 49ers scheme to get some points added. He won’t rack up the numbers like JJ Watt but I’d say he’s a fairly good bet to improve through the year.
Rating: 3
Joey Bosa – RE
Buckner is a 3-4 end and Bosa is a 4-3 end. Madden still can’t properly balance 4-3 defensive ends with 3-4 OLBs. So even though Bosa might be one of the more productive rookies, his card will always be nerfed by his competition at 3-4 OLB. He’ll be the starting left end in San Diego and should have all the opportunity to increase in rating. I’m not a fan of his balanced pass rush ratings they gave him in the base game so I think his stats improving won’t help him too much as it’s generally better to be high in either finesse or power moves. A jack of all trades but a master of no pressure.
Rating: 3
Kenny Clark – DT
Sitting behind Letroy Guion, Clark is not a starter in Green Bay. I’d put money that he’ll factor in with some play time through the year. I doubt he’ll get enough without an injury to Guion to realistically keep up with the rest of MUT’s overalls increasing. Unless something unforeseen happens, I don’t see a hugely productive rookie year from him.
Rating: 1
Sheldon Rankins – DT
Currently listed as the starter in New Orleans he’s a much better bet to get playing time than Clark. Unfortunately that playing time is in New Orleans where their levies hold up much better than their defense. But just having PT makes him the safer defensive tackle to get upgrades through the regular season. He was drafted 12 overall so the talent and opportunity is there for a solid season ahead.
Rating: 4
Leonard Floyd – LOLB
On the depth chard he’s currently sitting behind Lamar Houston in Chicago who has himself a pretty big free agent deal to earn. I do expect plenty of rotation on the field for Floyd even with Houston and McPhee there.
But unless he comes out like gangbusters I don’t see him playing full time and racking up a ton of statistics. The benefit of Floyd is that he’s 6’6 with decent speed. Will it be enough to make him a great user early? I’m not in love with the spec catch in 16 but we’ll see how much love they give it in 17. He’s a solid person to own early on but I don’t know how much ceiling he has sharing playing time in Chicago.
Rating: 3
Darron Lee – MLB
Currently behind both Erin Henderson and David Harris on the Jets depth chart. He still hasn’t signed his rookie contract so watch out for that. He’s got really good speed for a linebacker so he might have the makings of very good user at the beginning of the year. I worry with a potential camp holdout (although it’s doubtful). On the positive, Henderson is just a guy. I do expect Lee to see the field quite frequently through the year so with the way he runs, Darron Lee should provide good value for your team next year.
Rating: 4
Shaq Lawson – ROLB
He underwent shoulder surgery and should be back by November. That’s a little late in the year to get value for your team. And even if he was healthy, Rex Ryan took one of the best pass rushers of our generation and made him average. I can’t see it going better for Shaq this year.
Rating: Negative sideways 8
Jalen Ramsey – CB
Didn’t have a ton of interceptions in college so he might not put up the huge numbers that Madden devs want to see in order to increase his stats through the year. But that’s about it for the negative things I’m going to say about Ramsey. Barring injury I think he’s the best player to go after for the set seeing as he’s fast and at 6’1 tall enough to be a very good Madden corner. He should get plenty of playing time in Jacksonville so that’s not a worry. I would go after this man like Jacksonville chases British fans.
Rating: 5
Eli Apple – CB
Even faster than Ramsey and the same height. I only worry about his production on the field not giving us the same upgrades though the year that we might get with Ramsey. But still a very good choice for an early corner for your team with the added small chance he’ll get decent upgrades.
He’s currently the 3rd corner in New York behind DRC and Janoris Jenkins. He’s more comfortable on the outside but he’ll need to find a fit rotating around with the other two at the nickel. Optimistically he’ll keep up with other players in MUT and his speed and height make him a good early corner for your team.
Rating: 4
Karl Joseph
He’s coming off an ACL tear that limited him to 4 games last year in college. Reports are that he’ll be ready for training camp. Short for Madden at 5’10 but should have good hit power and speed in game. If he comes back healthy I can see him being a very productive and good safety in real life but nothing to write home about in Madden due to his small stature.
Today we go through some challenges and hurdles Madden has to overcome before it becomes a competitive eSport. Madden 16 is close, but will it be up there with Hearthstone, LoL and Starcraft?
Alternative title: Fight me bro on the electronic field
Today we give brief reviews of the Team of the Week players that were released today. We go through Kahlil Mack’s 95, Eddie Lacy’s 93, Doug Baldwin’s 89, Jabaal Sheard’s 87, Trumaine Johnson’s 86, Willie Snead’s 85, Dee Ford’s 84, Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 84, Andre Branch’s 83 and Isaiah Crowell’s 83.
Alternate title: The one where we screw up the sponsor.
All players over 90 overall in this thanksgiving set have a milestone to reach on Thanksgiving. We’ll get to them in a bit. Those between 85-89 do not. Here is EA’s blog so I won’t bore you going over each set and how to obtain each player. Every card I talk about over 90 overall is dual styles so they’ll help you there if you are struggling although there are some great resources from cmaddog on the MUT sub to help you through the challenges.
Also a little bit of news before we get started, Here’s a link to $50,000 Madden Challenge Tournament that EA is putting on. Looks like a nice little cherry for ranked draft champions and to see who the top Madden players are. Let me know what you all think of it.
Link to all players on muthead: http://www.muthead.com/16/players?filter-program-16=59&
Cam Newton – 93 overall
Playing Dallas on Thanksgiving. Their defense is average to below average in points allowed. I’d say the 3 TDs is a little less than a 50/50 shot. Cam has 21 TDs passing and rushing through 9 games.
This card compares very favorably to Donovan McNabb’s 95 overall in everything except throwing accuracy. Cam’s deep is especially atrocious at 84. Everything else about this card is spades and if he hits his 3 TDs and the extra overall goes to accuracy, we have the best QB in the game right now by a mile. If he doesn’t, I’m not sure if the throw deep doesn’t irreparably harm this thing. Compare this card to Mariota’s 88. You’ll pay the extra coin for Cam for strength, trucking, 4 throw power and play action but are losing 2 speed and 11 points in accuracy spread between the 3 categories.
Barry Sanders 98 overall
I don’t think I have the words for this card that can do it justice. I mean what can you say about this card that hasn’t been said about the Mona Lisa. Dri Archer speed with enough elusiveness to dodge prison time like OJ in the 90’s. 100 elusiveness, 101 agility. The only downside to this card is his trucking and what his price will look like.
Randall Cobb – 92 overall
Will get to a 96 overall if he catches 10 or more passes. He’s only had two 10 reception games in his career with both coming last year. I’d give this a 5-10% chance at happening.
But this card has okay speed with very good route running and catch in traffic. His poor release mean’s he’ll be a tough place to go to on 3rd down against an opponent running a man press scheme. He’s not better than Amari Cooper’s 91 so I don’t see myself using Cobb.
Jason Witten – 92 overall TE.
With 2 TD’s he goes up to a 95. 2 TD’s in 1 game in 2015, 2 in 2013, 1 in 2010. I’d give this a 5% shot of happening. About as good as my shot of taking a shower on any certain day.
But this card as it stands is a little slow with unimpressive run block. EA should give Witten better run block. But his height combined with catch in traffic and awareness gives him some value as a goal line and 3rd down converter.
Matt Forte – 91 Overall HB.
With 140 yards from scrimmage he goes up to a 94. His injury situation makes this a very dicey call and not one I would bet on. Like I should have learned not to bet after losing my first 4 stacks of high society in high end man-splattering. That’s where two people are pushed off a building and the first one to hit the ground wins. A tip for you kids out there, never bet on the guy with a baggy shirt.
But onto his card, he is a 3rd down catching back plain and simple. His speed and running skills really limit his every down usefulness. And because he’s only a change of pace back, his 99 stamina is wasted.
Walter Thurmond 91 overall CB.
IRL he’s a safety on the Eagles but for now he’s a CB in game. He goes up to a 97 overall with 2 picks on Thanksgiving. I’ll give this one a less than 5% chance of happening.
The card has 93 speed with 94 man coverage and 90 zone. His press at 82 makes using him in man press a very bad idea. 88 play rec is decent and his high agility at 95 makes changing direction and jumping routes easier. But overall I do not recommend this card as he isn’t a great corner for any one scheme. His blockshed being 47 makes him bad for a nickel corner too.
Stephen Tulloch – 91 overall MLB
10 tackles or more has him up to a 94. This one has a better chance at happening than the previous couple. I’d put it at 30-35% unless he celebrates a sack and gets injured again. But even if he is a 94, based on his 91 overall stats, he isn’t fast enough to play MLB in Madden 16. MLB’s need speed to get to the edge on tosses and make tackles on speedy WRs on drag routes. He also only has an 88 blockshed so he isn’t all that great as a guard shedder on inside dives or zones. This is not a card you want to own for what his price will be.
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix – 89 overall FS
The rest of these cards do not have milestones to reach and are only one style. Ha Ha has 91 speed, 91 zone, 86 play rec, 89 hit power. An all around very good free safety. How does he compare to Glover Quin’s 92? Not amazingly so. I would still rather have Quin but if Ha Ha’s price is much less than Quin’s he would be a great pick up. Ha Ha is a better tackler than Quin but everything else is pointed in Quin’s favor.
Kawann Short – 89 overall DT
Playing as the best DT in the league this year, Kawann Short’s card unfortunately doesn’t live up to it for me. His 87 blockshed at 74 speed isn’t ideal. He won’t help much against the run. 94 power move is very good of course. So if he’s not too expensive and you want an interior pass rusher, there are many more much worse than Kawann.
Randy Gregory – 88 overall RE.
This will be the nano blitzer’s dream if they discover new A or B gaps after the patch. 89 speed with 95 acceleration that can move down to DT for those nanos. But as a straight pass rusher, his 95 finesse move combined with the aforementioned speed stats means he’s a 4-3 scheme’s wet dream. This card combined with Clowney’s 84 overall at the two end spots on your line will make a mean pass rush with speed to keep the edge against and chase down roll out passers.
Corey Linsley – 87 overall Center
92 run block, 90 pass block, 93 impact block. Solid and should be a cheap center. Although should be’s are falsities. The Barry set could drive his price north like birds in the summer. Nothing really else to say about this card.
Jordan Matthews – 87 overall Wide receiver.
93 speed with 95 acceleration. 91 spec at 6’3 and 95 catch in traffic. His 85 release hurts but he’ll be a productive if not an unspectacular WR for you. Nothing here stands out except for his very low run blocking. His low elusiveness, juke and spin means he won’t be shedding many tacklers once he has the ball. So he isn’t good like Tavon on drags. So if you are on a budget, this is a solid number 1 or 2 WR that you sub out when you need to run the ball. Just be careful about tipping your hand.
Manny Ramirez – 87 overall RG
90 run block, 83 pass block, 87 impact block with low speed stats. 90 awareness is awesome but I’m not a big fan of the mix of these stats on a guard. I pull my guards and pass too often to use Manny on my team.
Mike Tolbert – 87 overall full back
Depending on how you use your full back Tolbert is either a very good or a complete pass. He has 77 run block and 75 impact. If you use your FB as a lead blocker, pass on Tolbert. 82 speed and 90 acceleration with decent catching and trucking stats. You can use him as a FB dive or a receiver out of the backfield. He doesn’t exactly excel in these areas compared to other FBs or TEs but he will perform decently for you. In addition his 88 awareness means he won’t screw up too many assignments if you run with him as a lead blocker once in a while.
Ameer Abdullah – 86 overall half back
Top tier acceleration with decent speed and elusiveness. An okay mix of receiving skills. I wouldn’t want this guy as my bell-cow, but he’s got an interesting mix of stats with his 97 juke and 94 agility. I just don’t see the explosive ability or exceptional receiving abilities out of someone with only 84 carrying and 87 stamina. I would pass on Ameer. We’ll get to a much better HB soon.
Brent Celek – 86 overall TE
Top tier blocking TE that can also catch a pass once in a while. And when I say once in a while I mean it. Do not use him as a primary receiving target. He’ll be good as TE number 2 or 3 on your team but 80 catching means he will let you down like Rick Astley would never do.
Christian Jones – 86 overall MLB
Very good speed stats at 88 speed and 96 acceleration to go with 87 zone coverage. He’ll be great as a user or non-user MLB in coverage. Unfortunately he has deficiencies against the run with 84 blockshed and 80 play rec. But he will get to the edge against toss plays with his speed and 92 pursuit. Might be worth giving a try just to use the speed and 6’3 height.
Jeremy Langford – 86 overall HB
His silver card was a stud for me. 95 speed with 94 acceleration on this card is something you want to pay attention to. 91 trucking means we have a very unique back. A power back that runs fast. 95 spin and 96 stiff arm means you can dry laundry by hitting the b button and iron it with the hot metallic arm he throws at defenders. His catching stats aren’t bad either. If his price gets to a reasonably low level, this will be a stud budget baller and is much better than his turkey promo competition Ameer Abdullah.
Byron Jones – 85 overall CB
The first thing that stands out is that you’ll give him your money even when you are in an alley in another state. That’s how good his jump is. 99 jumping stat. 89 zone with very low play rec but decent speed, acceleration and agility. I think it would be interesting to see him go against the Calvin’s of the world and see if that extraordinary jumping helps against those long bombs.
Today we go back through a script I wrote before the channel started but forgot to make a video on. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed an easy video to make today.
In today’s video we go through Madden 16 game footage and analyze and breakdown what I think we are in store for gameplay wise. See counters, draws, pass blocking, passing and catching in next years game.
Also, I cultivated about thesaurus so I can use bounteous phrases characterize what I generalize.
Today is my 100th video. Thank you to all of you out there for supporting my videos. This video is a compilation of all of my sponsors I’ve had so far. Thank you to my sponsors for supporting me through all of my trials and tribulations. But especially through my trials. Let me tell you, kids lie.
In today’s video we talk about Madden 16 ratings for rookies, QB’s, RB’s and WR’s and what they tell us about how the new game is going to play on balance and gameplay.
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