5 Steelers player ratings on Madden 22 that are totally bonkers

Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth: 71 overall

In general, Madden isn’t going to be very high on second-round rookies who have yet to take a snap in the NFL, and I get that. However, considering his impressive play this summer and how he compares to other NFL tight ends, Pat Freiermuth’s overall rating just doesn’t make sense.

Eric Ebron had some major consistency issues in 2020 for the Steelers, and drops were a big problem. In addition, he was awful as a blocker (which has been the story of his career). But despite all of his shortcomings, Madden is apparently going off Ebron’s reputation alone, as the veteran tight end earned an overall grade of 83 this year – 12 points higher than Freiermuth.

The irony in all of this is that the Steelers could end up using Freirmuth more this year, as he has outplayed Ebron so far this summer. While Freiermuth still needs to prove himself, his rating is currently behind players like Titans Anthony Firkser, Falcons Lee Smith, and Bengals C.J. Uzomah. This isn’t a huge complaint, but I’m willing to bet this jumps up early in the season.

I didn’t write this to try to drag Madden’s reputation through the mud, but I’m not the only one questioning their latest ratings. It will be interesting to see how quickly they make adjustments to some of these.