Possible Alternative to Madden?

[Dan R.]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm kind of annoyed by Madden's releasing of player ratings for this current year. While they have released full skill-position ratings, those really don't affect us too much (only WR/TE ratings play any real importance, QB and RB rely much more on stats here). They recently released their top-10 defensive players, but it's to be seen if they'll release full defensive ratings, and it seems they entirely skipped the offensive line.

With that in mind, I found an online resource that could potentially be even more valuable than Madden, especially as the site claims to have a partnership with EA to provide its ratings for the game (though some of their players don't quite match the ratings Madden has put out thus far...).

The site is: http://www.fbgratings.com/members/index.php and they have full NFL rosters even including UDFAs.

I know that we've talked about moving away from Madden in the past. While this isn't exactly doing that, it could be a step in that direction.

[Strategist]

When they release the game... All of the ratings will be known.

[tino38]

When they release the game... All of the ratings will be known.

We will know all the exact ratings by next Tuesday. Madden is pretty consistent, might be hard to break away from them, and potentially a LOT of work for Goodell that may not be necessary. It is a thought though and I suppose at least worthy of a debate on the forums at the very least.

[soonertf]

Sorry but those rankings are laughable at best. Madden will be out soon enough.

[dinkatoid]

I agree it would be hard to get away, as not many people really rate like madden does. It is one of the easiest sources to find ratings for. Personally, I would be a fan of profootballfocus.com, but someone would have to have a membership.

[sportznut]

Madden ratings are the way to go, simply b/c the team they have in place for that game does more research than any other game on the market, and they're going to consistently update those rankings as the year goes on.

Now, perhaps everyone will have a beef about certain players, but that's going to be the case with every single site you could find out there.

I like Madden b/c of the research behind it like I mentioned, and I'd say 99% of us here have a familiarity with the game. We all can relate to it, perhaps making it easier to understand. That is, there is no learning curve or guessing game there.

[Royce R]

I agree it would be hard to get away, as not many people really rate like madden does. It is one of the easiest sources to find ratings for. Personally, I would be a fan of profootballfocus.com, but someone would have to have a membership.

Huge fan of PFF. I've been trying to figure out away to rate what they do, and then average it with madden.

I think it would be great to have two sources of ratings like we have always looked at in the past. PFF looks at each player even harder than madden ever dreamed of.

But i haven't proposed it to the league yet because i haven't figured it out.

[RebelFan]

I'm a big fan of PFF as well, and I'd have to say there has been a wide gap between some "big name" or well known player's ratings and their performance according to PFF. However, I would also add that in the last year or two the Madden people really seem to be taking it seriously and doing a pretty good job with the ratings. Of course there are still some that they get totally wrong too.
I'm more interest in incorporating the madden blocking ratings, ie for TEs who are good at run blocking, but not necessarily great receivers. I call it the Alge Crumpler problem, though he has retired now.

[Dan R.]

Sorry but those rankings are laughable at best. Madden will be out soon enough.

If that's true, EA is paying for nothing. Sure, I disagree with some rankings, but they couldn't came that they're paid by EA to provide ratings for Madden if it's not true - the Better Business Bureau would be on their tail for false advertising. And Madden wouldn't pay for crap opinions, they're shrewder than that.

Then again, I often disagree with Madden's ratings at times - especially their criminal disregard for updating OL rankings compared to skill positions.

I've taken a look at PFF at a cursory level in the past and liked what I saw. I'd be on board should we look there as well.

[Strategist]

Personally I think that Madden is close enough... They update every week... And yes sometimes it is swayed by higglight reels but ussually they do a good job..