Madden 22 butchers the rating of Steelers star Minkah Fitzpatrick

Madden 22 has been slowly releasing their player ratings for their new game, but here’s why they should be ashamed of how they treated Steelers star, Minkah Fitzpatrick. 

Whether you are a big Madden person or not, most over-the-top football fans have some level of interest in checking out player ratings for the upcoming game just before the start of the new season. If you haven’t seen these ratings yet, I’ll give you fair warning that this one is a little hard to stomach.

Over the last week of July, EA Sports has slowly been releasing their player ratings for the anticipated Madden 22 video game. Recently, they released the ratings of the top 10 safeties on the game. Minkah Fitzpatrick was… 10th.

Player ratings are a subjective thing. I get that. There’s no one-size-fits-all. However, rating Fitzpatrick as only the 10th-best player at his position in the NFL is ludicrous. Before all of the position ratings have even been released, there are already 49 NFL players with a higher overall rating than Minakah Fitzpatricks.

In the new game, Fitzpatrick has an overall rating of 89. In comparison, Tyrann Mathieu was surprisingly the top-ranked safety on the game with an elite rating of 95 overall. Ironically, Pro Football Focus ranked Mathieu as just the 36th-best safety in the NFL last season with an overall grade of 67.0.

In reality, Mathieu is a very good football player. But he’s not Minkah Fitzpatrick.

Where should the Steelers star safety have ranked among the rest?

I don’t let these ratings get to me, and we have to understand that this just comes down to a matter of opinion. However, I disagree with this entirely.

Minkah Fitzpatrick is the only safety in the NFL who earned First-Team All-Pro honors in both 2019 and 2020. There’s a reason for this. He has been remarkable for the Steelers.

Over the past two seasons, Fitzpatrick has caused more takeaway-worthy plays (interceptions, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries) than any defensive back in the NFL in addition to rarely giving up big plays.

According to Pro Football Reference, Minkah has given up just 3 touchdowns over the past 30 games. In addition, he has boasted incredibly low passer ratings when targeted over the past two seasons – allowing a 46.3 passer rating in 2019 and a 65.7 passer rating in 2020.

In short, there really is no basis as to why Madden 22 would rate Fitzpatrick so low. In reality, I think you could make a very strong case that Minkah is the very best in the business right now, followed by Jessie Bates. Derwin James is also a remarkable safety, but he has rarely been healthy so far in his NFL career. I think most fans would agree that Fitzpatrick’s rating should be swapped with Tyrann Mathieu’s.

At the end of the day, Madden 22 is going to do their thing, and we don’t have any say about it. Let’s just hope the Steelers All-Pro safety uses this as motivation in 2021.