Bengals' Joe Burrow Tops Madden NFL 21 Rookie QB Ratings at 76 Overall

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft Joe Burrow is the highest-rated rookie quarterback in the Madden NFL 21 video game.

EA Sports officially released the ratings for every rookie quarterback Thursday, and Burrow paced the field by a fairly wide margin at 76 overall. He is followed by Tua Tagovailoa of the Miami Dolphins (73), Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers (71) and Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers (70).

Burrow is coming off arguably the greatest quarterback season in college football history, as he completed 76.3 percent of his passes for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns and six interceptions. Burrow led LSU to an undefeated record and national championship, and he won the Heisman Trophy individually.

The Athens, Ohio, native's overall rating is largely buoyed by his high accuracy ratings. Of all rookie quarterbacks, Burrow is first in short throwing accuracy (88), medium throwing accuracy (84) and deep throwing accuracy (85).

Burrow also has a throw power rating of 86, although several other rookie quarterbacks top him in that category, including Indianapolis Colts fourth-round pick Jacob Eason, who is tops at 93, although his overall rating is just 63.

Additionally, Burrow is one of the fastest rookie signal-callers in Madden with a speed rating of 83. Only Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cole McDonald of the Tennessee Titans and Tyler Huntley of the Baltimore Ravens have a better speed rating at 86 apiece.

Tagovailoa, Herbert, Love and Hurts reacted to their ratings Thursday, and all of them seemed to be fairly satisfied:

Hurts, who is the No. 5 rookie quarterback with an overall rating of 68, was especially happy with his speed rating after going in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft to Philly.

The order of the quarterbacks isn't especially surprising since it largely follows the draft. Burrow went first overall to Cincy, Tua went fifth overall to Miami, Herbert went sixth overall to the Chargers and Love went 26th overall to the Green Bay.

Love was one of the biggest surprises of the first round given the presence of veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and the fact that he is slightly higher than Herbert in overall rating is somewhat surprising as well since Herbert went 20 spots higher in the draft.

Burrow, Tagovailoa and Herbert all have a legitimate chance to begin the 2020 season as the starter for their respective teams, and if they live up to their draft status, the 2020 draft could be one of the best ever for quarterbacks.

Madden NFL 21 is set for worldwide release Aug. 28, but those who pre-order the MVP or Deluxe Editions can play three days early on Aug. 25.