Thoughts on the Madden Roster Updates
by 
Throughout the year there has been much discussion around the weekly Madden roster updates. For the most part everyone has been pleased with the frequency of them and ultimately ratings are going to be overly-scrutinized and will never please everyone. However there has been some aspects that have come into question. Some of my concerns have stemmed from what appears to be heavy leaning towards past performance and not enough towards the present. This has been seen through examples such as LaDainian Tomlinson on one end when compared to rookies on the other. Joe Flacco was the most recent example I pulled for an article the other day and that generated some interesting comments.
With that all in mind I was contacted by Madden 2010 lead producer Phil Frazier for the opportunity to get some questions answered pertaining to the roster updates. After mentioning essentially what I did in the prior paragraph I received a response back which you can find after the break. With the attention roster updates in general have been getting as of late having a discussion in order to completely understand the process as well as improve on it in the future is greatly appreciated.
After reading it feel free to leave any questions or suggestions you might have in the comments and I’ll see about passing those on as well for a follow-up. Also make sure to vote in the poll at the end.
The fun part about ratings is that they are subjective. We have Jon Crankshaw who manages the overall responsibility of the ratings with help from the rest of our design team. Our thoughts about players or teams are really no different than what you see on sports shows. These are our opinions based on what we see on gameday and read about on the net. We of course try our best to rate players accurately and without any bias towards our own favorite teams.
On Flacco…
He’ll be moving up to an 82 in the next update but not because of some of the opinions on the web. We watched him very closely in the playoffs and while better than his current rating, he’s still an average QB with a great arm. In my opinion, the primary reason the Ravens are in the playoffs is because of their defense, not necessarily Joe Flacco. Flacco hasn’t been great in the playoffs and the Ravens are a ‘run first’ kind of team, throwing only when needed. His regular season numbers are 14TD’s with 12 INT’s, getting slightly worse in the playoffs. In the end, we feel 82 is a more accurate number than his previous rating.
On our ratings philosophy…
Up to this point, our general ratings philosophy has been to consider a players body of work (past and present) and consistency when generating the ratings. It’s certainly possible that this philosophy no longer applies given the new frequency of our updates. I guess you could say we understand why some think our ratings should reflect the NFL as it is today (literally) vs. who we feel is good overall. That’s the question of the week for the Madden Team moving forward. What should our ratings philosophy be given the new frequency of our updates? Should each update reflect who’s hot and who’s not in that given week? If a player has a bad game (or two) should he be hammered in ratings or should we continue to consider his career and previous performance? Based on recent community feedback, it feels like most would prefer more significant changes based on game to game performance. Maybe an online poll would help clarify this?
January 19, 2009 at 6:07 pm
You shouldnt have to have xbox live gold membership to update rosters….the roster changes should go thru the computer lookin at the stats of the last game but then of course factors like a qb being able to get out of the pocket and avoid gettin sacked or a running back zigzaggin thru the field for a touchdown would have to be seen by human eyes no computer could do that…shits complicated
January 20, 2009 at 8:04 am
you guys on here are a hooy i think james harrison should be 99 aaron smith 95 lamar woodley 96 and ike taylor 93 come on we got byfar the best d in football and they arent even the best in the game
January 20, 2009 at 5:57 pm
That's asking a bit much. I think they're all exactly where they should be. It's not all about individual effort, but rather a collective team effort. Let's see if Harrison makes as much as an impact next year and stays consistent, Ike gets burned on a couple of a plays, and Woodley plays primarily the role of a pass rusher and you want him to be a 96? That's a bit extreme.
January 21, 2009 at 3:32 am
ur right but ike t is already a 93 and woodley shoud not be 96 but maybe a 90 and urfs ryan clark should have a hammer.
January 21, 2009 at 5:11 am
I think health should be more of an issue in the game. Players play hurt, get sick, and just plain get old. I feel that this should be a bigger part in the game. For example Urlacher and LT (rated a bit too high in my opinion) are both getting older and had their share of problems this year (LT with his toe and Urlacher has a bad back). In order to get a "more realistic football simulation" I can't help thinking there should be some sort of slider similar to morale for health.
Also, I just wanted to mention that a lot of the time players play over or under their skill sets (Ward, Kyle Orton, Cedric Benson, etc).
What about players getting hot and cold too?
Of course all of these ideas would have to have a less than major effect on the gameplay and simply make a fuller experience rather than completely change it.
January 21, 2009 at 5:23 am
I would also like to see Practice squads and IR properly implemented in 2010.
January 22, 2009 at 1:01 am
wheres the love for the eagles d line and linebackers. they've been playing good all year long. bunkly should at the min at least have bull rush, patterson should be close to both. bradley should be a break wall tackler and close to smart lb. mikkel should also be close to a smart player the guy makes plays behind the los all the time and is always blowing up the run ala bob sanders. also the eagles o line needs a little love to. i mean come on they gave up like the 5th fewest sacks this year let alone held the giants pass rush to i think like 1 sack in 3 games this year. the eagles never get the credit they deserve. the cowboys lose and they get upped. the eagles win and EA will find a way to lower someone like mcnabb. you give 5 one good wr and he'll light any defense up. also EA you guys need to fix some rating on madden, just some obivious ones like sum giant ratings like pierces and eli's accurate qb. pierce is a slow mlb not an 85speed 87 acc where u have him let alone a 95 overall anymore and once plax was gone throw it up off his back foot eli showed his true colors.
January 23, 2009 at 12:57 pm
ur so right but quintin is rated fine after what he did in arizona. and that o-line gave up 0 sck not 1 but 0 to ny in 3 games while the cowboys o-line gave up 8 scks in 2 gms…….somethings odd right? lol. runyan should be nothing lower than a 92 and todd should def. b a 90. if ur gonna boost the giants line so much then bost the eagles,saints falcons and broncos lines because they all gave up less sacks. and from the stats the boys; line is middle of the pack in every catogory so y r they rated so damn high. not 1000 yd rusher in like five yrs!!!!! and the 15 most sacks in the league. omg as a matter of fact im lookin at the patriots line stats and they gave up the 5th most sacks behind pitt wow OVERRATED as a matter of fact where has their 1000 yd rusher. ea cmon now
February 7, 2009 at 2:48 am
I don't agree with the madden stats for my team for the obvious reasons which every one quite knows. Making the play offs and still rated low. But not so bad but how can you not update a WR who played well all season? Ted Ginn Jr hasn't bin updated the whole seaon And his speed tho a 97 is still an under rating .. Ronnie Brown's speed dropped ( and his speed is highly under rated in reference to his speed and elusiveness) Every one who watched the worst team in foot ball which i refer to the Fins as knows that no way in hell Ronnie Brown is a 91 speed. And Ricky who's faster has dropped from 92 ( again under rated should be at least a 94 with a 95 acc) to an 89? How so? he's the fastest Running back we got. The deffence on the whole is underated. Joey Porter didn't just get those sacks by him self, it was the pressure from the D-line. Some one please share your views with me
February 7, 2009 at 2:50 am
I don't agree with the madden stats for my team for the obvious reasons which every one quite knows. Making the play offs and still rated low. But not so bad but how can you not update a WR who played well all season? Ted Ginn Jr hasn't bin updated the whole seaon And his speed tho a 97 is still an under rating .. Ronnie Brown's speed dropped ( and his speed is highly under rated in reference to his speed and elusiveness) Every one who watched the worst team in foot ball which i refer to the Fins as knows that no way in hell Ronnie Brown is a 91 speed. And Ricky who's faster has dropped from 92 ( again under rated should be at least a 94 with a 95 acc) to an 89? How so? he's the fastest Running back we got. The deffence on the whole is underated. Joey Porter didn't just get those sacks by him self, it was the pressure from the D-line. Some one please share your views with me
October 8, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I'm trying to figure out why is Terrance Newman at 97 speed. He holds, get burnt constantly, and is never up to the standards that are set for him. It's like people want him to be an elite corner so bad that they put him where he doen't belong.