Madden 12: Peyton Hillis, Brian Urlacher and 5 Extremely Overrated Players

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Madden 12's release today in America and across the world this week will allow gamers to take control of their favorite teams and lead them to glory.

Nevertheless, most fans playing with their favorite players won't notice how much better their team is playing on the field because they won't care.

Some of us, however, notice when the EA scouts took some shortcuts in scouting and listened to the media hype and based their ratings on reputation.

Brian Urlacher

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Brian Urlacher has been an outstanding football player for a long time and is a future hall of famer.

Does he really still play to a 94 overall rating?

I for one don't think so. Urlacher in my mind is around a late 80s type of player at this stage in his career. He's still very good but falls behind the younger generation such as Jon Beason, Lawrence Timmons, Jerod Mayo and Patrick Willis as being elite.

The same could be said of Ray Lewis who checks in in the 90s also but Lewis is playing to a higher level than Urlacher as of last season at least.

Knowshon Moreno

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I'm a Knowshon Moreno fan. I think he's got a bit of talent and could be a breakout candidate this year. However, even I would struggle to justify giving him a rating above 80 never mind going so high as 85 overall.

There isn't one attribute in particular that stands out but you could take five points off of each key running back statistic and he would likely have a more accurate reflection on the game.

It's not like Moreno is a stud running back whose proven himself in his first two NFL seasons. He hasn't gone over 1,000 yards yet and has had at least three fumbles in each season on very few carries.

Wes Welker

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According to Madden Wes Welker is still an elite receiver.

It may be cruel to judge Welker on last season considering he worked wonders to be as effective as he was last season coming off a torn ACL injury, but right now he is not the player he was in 2007 or even 2009.

Welker finished last season with 848 yards and an average of 9.9 yards per reception.

Those are respectable statistics but not good enough to deserve a 90 overall rating. Had Welker still been playing in Miami or anywhere other than New England this rating would most likely be closer to the 80 mark rather than the 90.

Kevin Kolb

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Last season, Sam Bradford had an outstanding rookie year and was one of the most impressive young quarterbacks in the league.

He and Josh Freeman have earned the titles of being the best young quarterbacks in the league right now because of their ability to carry their respective teams to victories as well as put up big numbers.

Freeman is richly rewarded in Madden with an 88 overall rating while Bradford is also fairly adjudged with an 85 overall.

However, it is a complete insult to those two quarterbacks and many others around the league that Kevin Kolb is rated at 84 overall. Seriously? Based on what EA? This was before the Cardinals even traded for him.

Kolb has a career stat line of 11 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. Even Alex Smith has proven more than him and Smith is in the 75 rating range. With guys like Matthew Stafford showing more in similar amounts of time on the field and only receiving an 80 it is obvious the EA guys bought into the hype of Kolb.

Peyton Hillis

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The cover boy was always going to be slightly overrated but EA really took the biscuit with Hillis.

Hillis is a good back and had a great season last year but a 91 overall is too steep. I can understand all of his physical attributes and while I would have most of them a couple of points below where they are, the fact that he has an 85 in carrying will allow Hillis to play like Walter Peyton on Madden.

Did nobody realize that Hilis had eight fumbles last year? Eight? He only had 270 carries and 61 receptions but it's not like he was destroying defenses as much as his reputation preceded him as he averaged 4.4 yards per carry.

That is a respectable number but not a 91 overall number.