Recapping the Pittsburgh Steelers Madden 21 ratings

The Pittsburgh Steelers could be legitimate playoff contenders in 2020. Here’s a look into each player’s Madden 21 rating heading into the season.

All Madden 21 ratings have officially been released and fans from all teams are excited to peek into what their favorite players are rated for the upcoming season. However, many Pittsburgh Steelers fans are up in arms – and for pretty good reason.

Despite being a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in 2019, 125 players were rated higher than T.J. Watt on the latest Madden video game, as the All-Pro edge defender earned a rating of just an 86 overall. Though many thought Watt deserved to be the highest-rated player on the team, six other players earned a grade at or above the 86 overall rating that T.J. Watt received.

A closer look at Steelers Madden 21 ratings

Topping the list of Steelers ratings was All-Pro offensive guard, David DeCastro. His 91 overall grade is about what we could have expected for Madden 21. Just behind him was defensive lineman Cameron Heyward – earning an overall grade of 90.

Many were surprised to see that Stephon Tuitt was tied for the third-highest rating on the team with an 87 overall. Despite missing 10 games last season with a pectoral tear, Tuitt has been a player that Madden raters have always been higher on than most. Likewise, Maurkice Pouncey received an 86 overall grade (the same as T.J. Watt) despite grading out as the second-worst qualifying center in the league last season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Though Watt was clearly the biggest snub of all Steelers ratings for the latest installment of Madden, Minkah Fitzpatrick wasn’t too far behind. Though his 87 overall grade seems very respectable for such a young player, 11 NFL safeties were rated higher – the top being Minnesota Vikings safety, Harrison Smith, with a 95 overall rating.

Ben Roethlisberger received just an 81 overall rating this year. After leading the league in passing in 2018, Big Ben suffered a season-ending elbow injury and played just a game-and-a-half last season. Roethlisberger is the 15th rated quarterback on the game with names like Philip Rivers, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Kirk Cousins earning higher grades.

Some other notable ratings include JuJu Smith-Schuster at an 86, Eric Ebron at an 84, Joe Haden at an 83, and Alejandro Villanueva at an 82. Meanwhile, James Conner, Steven Nelson, and Mike Hilton, and Ben Roethlisberger all tied with 81 overall ratings.

Bud Dupree was just an 80 overall this year despite the Pittsburgh Steelers paying him $15.828 million on the franchise tag this year. Rising young players Devin Bush and Diontae Johnson shared a 76 overall rating, while James Washington was even higher with an overall of 78.

Obviously, Madden ratings have no correlation between how good players are in real life, but they are always interesting to view prior to the start of each season. Let’s hope that players like T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick use these ratings as fuel for the upcoming season and prove why they should have been rated much higher.