Every year Madden catches a lot of critisism for their player ratings. This year like always, a ton of people were unhappy with their favorite players’ ratings. Here are what the Lions ratings should be (only starters, projected by ESPN).
To start things off, Jared Goff should be a seventy-six overall. Goff is a solid quarterback and deserves to be rated somewhere near players like Ryan Tannehill and Jameis Winston. Somewhere around a seventy-six is completely fair.
Lions running back, D’Andre Swift, should be an eighty-four overall. Swift has had a lot of hype around him recently and puts up fantastic rushing and receiving numbers when healthy.
The next four players listed are our receiving corps. Amon-Ra St. Brown is deserving of a seventy-nine overall. Amon-Ra performed well in his rookie year but still hasn’t reached his full potential yet, which I would project to be around an eighty-eight overall. Rookie Jameson Williams deserves to come into the league as a seventy-six overall. While he doesn’t deserve to be too high considering he’s unproven and coming off an ACL injury, Williams is a well respected receiver and has tons of speed. The Lions most well known free agency piece this year, DJ Chark, deserves an eighty-one overall. Chark hovers somewhere around an above average receiver in the league but gets injured pretty frequently. Last of the receiving corps, Josh Reynolds. Reynolds deserves somewhere around a seventy-three overall. Reynolds is roughly an average to slightly below average receiver, but is a good fourth receiver without a doubt.
Manning the Tight End position, TJ Hockenson gets an eighty-six overall. Hockenson is one of the most talented tight ends in the league and performs well when not injured. There is a bit of a trend with some of these Lions players. When healthy they are talented, but get hurt frequently.
Next up are the big boys in the trenches: the offensive lineman. Starting with franchise left tackle, Taylor Decker. Decker deserves an eighty-three overall. Decker is another one of these guys that’s great but gets injured a lot. It’s really unfortunate because we got all these talented guys who can’t stay healthy on offense. Next up is left guard Jonah Jackson. Jackson gets a seventy-seven from me. The former Ohio State standout was a pro bowl reserve last year and was a surprising choice to represent this talented offensive line. Jackson is certainly solid to say the least, but nothing super special.
Frank Ragnow is an extremely talented center. Ragnow deserves an eighty-six overall. Ragnow is arguably the best player on this oline. He spent almost all of this season injured. But Ragnow when healthy gets thrown into the conversation for best center in the league. Halapoulivaati Vaitai is the right guard and the lowest overall on this line. “Big V” gets a seventy-six overall. Vaitai was an extremely underrated player on the line last year, but is still considered to be the worst or second worst on this line. Lastly to rap up the ratings, is superstar Penei Sewell. Sewell is extremely young and truly a fun offensive lineman to watch. Although it’s only his second season, Sewell gets an eighty-five overall. Madden overalls are always fun to discuss. Everyone has such different opinions on them and are sometimes polar opposites.
