3 Steelers with legitimate gripes about their Madden ratings
By Tommy Jaggi
Take Madden ratings with a grain of salt. Please don't let them be your primary source of comparing NFL players and determining how good they are. While there are some good things about EA Sports' Madden video game franchise, their player ratings clearly need some work. This is especially true when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Madden 24.
Just ahead of NFL training camps, Madden has been slow releasing their player ratings for the latest installment of their upcoming video game. Obviously, we didn't have a beef with the way that every Steelers player was rated. Pat Freiermuth's overall rating of 85 ranked a respectable 8th on the game at his position, while many others on the roster came in exactly where we expected.
Sadly, some player ratings were grossly mishandled. Here are three Pittsburgh Steelers players who should have legitimate gripes over their Madden 24 ratings.
RB Jaylen Warren
Overall rating: 74
Rank among position: 56th
It's hard to find an area of Jaylen Warren's game last year where he wasn't impressive. Entering training camp, Warren seemed like a long shot to make the team. By the end of the summer, he was the clear-cut RB2.
It didn't take long to notice the former undrafted free agent from Oklahoma State. While his sample size was relatively small in 2022 with just 77 carries, Warren was remarkably efficient -- ranking 13th in the NFL in true yards per carry, 6th in yards per touch, and 8th in DVOA (though some metrics he did not have enough carries to qualify for a ranking).
As both a runner and receiver, Warren was excellent last year. But despite his impressive rookie performance and the fact that he averaged 4.9 yards per carry behind a less-than-spectacular offensive line, Warren earned a disrespectful rating of 74 overall on Madden 24.
This is a whopping 9 points worse than Najee Harris (who was significantly less efficient with his touches last year). On the Steelers roster, this places him behind players like S Keanu Neal and OG Kevin Dotson. This ties Warren for just 56th on the game at his position -- right next to players like Boston Scott, Isaiah Spiller, and Ty Montgomery.