Madden 21: Release Date and Breaking Down Star Player Ratings

After a successful outing with Patrick Mahomes on the cover, the team at EA Sports decided to go big under center again for Madden NFL 21 with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

That Mahomes-led outing landed on a 76 at Metacritic. The next in line, set for release August 28, fittingly promises plenty of upgrades in areas like offensive playmaking ability thanks to a Skill Stick.

The new feature means an evolution for offensive playmakers as they bust out new hurdles, spins and more. It also means a variety of new pass-rushing moves and outright control for players controlling the defensive side of the ball.

But the gameplay additions to this year's game wouldn't amount to much if players didn't have a vast array of superstar players available at their fingertips. Which brings things to what is always the most talked-about facet of a Madden release: the player ratings.

First, the exclusive 99 club:

• Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
• Aaron Donald, DL, Los Angeles Rams
• Stephon Gilmore, CB, New England Patriots
• Christian McCaffrey, RB, Carolina Panthers
• Michael Thomas, WR, New Orleans Saints

No shockers there, though plenty of fans from different teams could make arguments for omissions.

One such fanbase would be the Los Angeles Chargers because of the 89 rating for star safety Derwin James, something NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah hinted at:

James, just 24, played in only five games last year. But as a rookie, he put up an 82.3 Pro Football Focus grade while piling up 105 total tackles with 11 pressures, 3.5 sacks and just 49 completions on 73 targets.

Plenty of other fanbases could justifiably do the same. Pittsburgh Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt, despite 34.5 sacks over three seasons and 59 pressures last year alone, only sits on an 86. Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, one of the most dynamic passers on today's game, is an 86.

And working in the other direction, Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski, reunited with Tom Brady after a year away from football and playing for a new team for the first time in his career, still sits as a 95 overall. That's a higher rating than those for Lamar Jackson, Drew Brees, Davante Adams and Joey Bosa, to name a few.

But there's always one important thing to consider with ratings: the team at EA Sports updates them weekly. Any perceived wrongs won't last long, as ratings change with each update. And interestingly, one of this year's new features is the addition of updated playbooks getting and rosters.

Keep in mind many of the star player ratings better reflect a philosophic design change EA Sports started last year to lean more into realism.

A blog post for last year's game explained the shift:

"Next, we re-defined what is considered 'starter quality,' which is probably the biggest change of this system. In Madden NFL 19, 54% of the roughly 2,900 players (including free agents) were 70 OVR or better. In Madden NFL 20, 41% of the players are at 70 OVR or better, which means that both low-level starters and depth players can be rated in the 60s—and maybe even 50s. From a gameplay perspective, this creates a drastic drop off from starter to backup. This solves a big issue. In previous Maddens, backups were almost plug-and-play if a starter was injured. But now, with the severe drop off in ratings, starters will have a distinct feel, while you will struggle much more with their replacements."

The result was more realistic gameplay wherein superstars felt like superstars and it was a devastating blow to put backups in games.

With a full year in the books working with the ratings change, things are bound to feel even better in the newest release near the end of August. Paired with more intuitive playmaking controls on both sides of the ball, the best players should feel even more special. The full list of ratings as they stand is available at EA Sports.