Madden NFL 15 Player Ratings: Early Impressions from Top-5 Positional Rankings

Being a fan of football video games in 2014, well, it actually kind of stinks. This year marked the first time in two decades that EA Sports did not release a college football game, having put its NCAA Football series on a possibly permanent hiatus amid likeness-related lawsuits.

There is also no NFL Blitz, NFL Street nor is there the dearly departed NFL 2K franchise. Hell, there isn't even a new backyard football game. All that remains of the marketplace is a barren wasteland, one in which the children of the next generation may never know the thrills of bilking their parents of $400 worth of football-related video games every year.

Oh, and Madden.

The remaining monolith of the football video game market, EA Sports' Madden 15 will release Aug. 26 in North America. This is the fourth straight iteration being released on the new schedule, which calls for a release on the last Tuesday in August instead of the first. While this ultimately helps create a better product and build hype closer to the football season, the extra two weeks are all the more excruciating without NCAA Football around to tide folks over.

Hence we get everyone going gaga over a slow roll out of the individual player rating releases. EA Sports has spent the last week or so going position by position—or, in cases like rookies, groups—and unveiling the top five players in each area. Madden ratings have long been thought of as fans and even players as a general consensus of how the NFL's hierarchy truly plays out. It's also just a generally fun topic of conversation that gets the debate engines revving that will continue throughout the season.

And, let's be honest: Without another football video game to entertain us, most people will use any excuse possible to shift focus to the joysticks. With that in mind, let's take a quick look at some takeaways from the ratings released thus far.

Top Quarterbacks	Team	Rating
Top Fullbacks	Team	Rating
Top Running Backs	Team	Rating
Top Tight Ends	Team	Rating
Top Wide Receivers	Team	Rating
Top Offensive Linemen	Team	Rating
Top Defensive Ends	Team	Rating
Top Defensive Tackles	Team	Rating
Top Middle Linebackers	Team	Rating
Top Outside Linebackers	Team	Rating
Peyton Manning	Denver Broncos	98
Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers	98
Drew Brees	New Orleans Saints	96
Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahawks	93
Tom Brady	New England Patriots	93
John Kuhn	Green Bay Packers	93
Mike Tolbert	Carolina Panthers	92
Marcel Reece	Oakland Raiders	92
Anthony Sherman	Kansas City Chiefs	90
Jerome Felton	Minnesota Vikings	88
Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings	98
LeSean McCoy	Philadelphia Eagles	97
Jamaal Charles	Kansas City Chiefs	97
Matt Forte	Chicago Bears	95
Marshawn Lynch	Seattle Seahawks	95
Jimmy Graham	New Orleans Saints	97
Rob Gronkowski	New England Patriots	96
Vernon Davis	San Francisco 49ers	94
Jason Witten	Dallas Cowboys	93
Greg Olsen	Carolina Panthers	88
Calvin Johnson	Detroit Lions	99
Brandon Marshall	Chicago Bears	96
Andre Johnson	Houston Texans	95
A.J. Green	Cincinnati Bengals	95
Dez Bryant	Dallas Cowboys	94
Joe Thomas	Cleveland Browns	98
Evan Mathis	Philadelphia Eagles	97
Josh Sitton	Green Bay Packers	97
Trent Williams	Washington	95
Joe Staley	San Francisco 49ers	94
J.J. Watt	Houston Texans	99
Robert Quinn	St. Louis Rams	97
Cameron Wake	Miami Dolphins	96
Calais Campbell	Arizona Cardinals	96
Cameron Jordan	New Orleans Saints	93
Muhammad Wilkerson	New York Jets	93
Ndamukong Suh	Detroit Lions	97
Geno Atkins	Cincinnati Bengals	96
Gerald McCoy	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	95
Kyle Williams	Buffalo Bills	95
Jurrell Casey	Tennessee Titans	93
Patrick Willis	San Francisco 49ers	96
NaVorro Bowman	San Francisco 49ers	96
Luke Kuechly	Carolina Panthers	94
Derrick Johnson	Kansas City Chiefs	91
Jerod Mayo	New England Patriots	91
Von Miller	Denver Broncos	96
Aldon Smith	San Francisco 49ers	96
Justin Houston	Kansas City Chiefs	93
Lavonte David	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	93
Robert Mathis	Indianapolis Colts	93

Calvin Johnson, J.J. Watt and Everyone Else

Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

Few outside the most most contrarian of contrarians would argue that Johnson and Watt aren't the best players at their respective positions. They're both humanoid freaks of nature who seem almost unfair in a sport comprised entirely of the best our genetic pool has to offer.

Johnson gives us a glimpse at what it'd be like if LeBron played football. He's gone over the 1,000-yard mark four straight seasons, has four double-digit touchdown campaigns on his resume and, right, he's the single-season record-holder for yards in a single season. Dude is insanely productive, which is no surprise given that he's 6'5" and 236 pounds and can still manage to outrun nearly every cornerback in football.

Watt could be the biggest superstar in WWE right now. He's a 6'5", 289-pound behemoth who bursts off the ball like someone 30 pounds lighter. He is the rare 3-4 defensive end who can be more productive against the run and pass than 4-3 counterparts. The fact that Houston was able to bring in Jadeveon Clowney to pair with Watt this season is unfair. Clowney and Watt are such dynamic athletes that they're going to make playing defense fun—a near impossibility in our offensive-minded video game world.

Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images

What makes Watt and Johnson so notable isn't their 99 overall ratings. Their ratings would have only been noteworthy had they not topped out Madden's ratings system. It's that their ratings show the chasm that exists between them and their contemporaries.

Brandon Marshall is the next highest receiver at 96 overall. Which, as an aside, is weird. One would have thought that A.J. Green had done enough by now to pass Marshall—especially given Green's skill set lends itself better to a video game setting. But alas.  

Robert Quinn is the next highest defensive end at 97 overall. Not nearly as weird.

No other position players currently have a two-point lead over their competition. I find this in line with what shows up on film. Johnson and Watt are probably among the five best players in football (assuming we're eliminating the overall importance of the quarterback) and deserve to be treated as such.

Blake Bortles Receives Top Overall Rookie QB Rating

John Raoux/Associated Press

Out of respect for the NFL draft process, EA Sports typically tries to rate rookies as close to their draft spot as possible. Clowney and Greg Robinson, the top two overall selections, are rated 83 overall—two points better than any other rookie. Khalil Mack, Sammy Watkins and Jake Matthews, each top-six selections, round out the five players who receive ratings of 80 overall or better.

Then we get to Blake Bortles.

The former UCF star was taken third overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars and comes in at a 78 overall. The ratings for Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater—the other two QBs taken in Round 1—have not been released, but EA clearly calls Bortles its top-rated rookie signal-caller.

Given the quarterback situations in Minnesota, Cleveland and Jacksonville, that's a little curious. The Jaguars have exactly zero interest in starting Bortles right away. Jacksonville head coach Gus Bradley has been transparent with his team's plans to keep Chad Henne installed as the starter—perhaps for the entire season. Bortles, while talented, is an extremely raw talent who is going to need a ton of seasoning to make an impact.

Manziel and Bridgewater, on the other hand, are each in the midst of quarterback battles they may wind up winning. The Browns have backed Brian Hoyer as their starter to open camp and he's done little to lose the job thus far, but they're keeping the door cracked just in case. Browns coach Mike Pettine recently told Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal:

"

It's definitely still up in the air. It could be sooner, and that's something we're going to discuss in that meeting. It'll be before the third preseason game. I just don't have a date. I don't know if I'll set a date and kind of paint ourselves into a date, but it will be sooner than the third preseason game.

"

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Bridgewater is also a bit behind Matt Cassel with the Vikings. But he's drawn raves from everywhere since setting foot in Minnesota and many scouts thought he was the most NFL-ready quarterback coming into the draft. Of the three, Bridgewater probably has the best chance of making a real impact in 2014.

Here is where the difficulty comes in. Because we're yet to see any of this trio play a game, the natural inclination is to lean toward Bortles. It also, again, respects the minds of NFL personnel people. But it'll be interesting to see how the ratings are adjusted in the event Bridgewater or Manziel wind up winning their respective starting jobs.

Perhaps an adjustment to make Bortles' potential higher but his initial rating lower would do the trick.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.