Madden 12: Real Gamers Will Take These 3 Teams from Worst to First

There is no greater feeling in Madden—in my opinion at least—than bringing a bottom feeder to Super Bowl glory.

Playing the role of God...hold on sorry...playing the role of GM and putting a franchise together from scratch essentially is incredibly rewarding—at least until you put a suit on for the NFL draft and realize how incredibly ridiculous your life is—and endlessly entertaining for countless hours.

Here are three teams that will present the biggest challenge to gamers this season...sorry I mean GMs this year...Madden's not a game.

Buffalo Bills

The most important pieces in Madden during my experience of the game have been quarterback and cornerback.

The offense obviously runs through the quarterback and in Madden you cannot hide the cornerback position with a talented front seven like you can to an extent in real life.

The Bills' corners are solid and so is Ryan Fitzpatrick, their starting quarterback. However, neither area of the team represents a future with a team around them that isn't talented to win with them.

Going by Madden's player ratings at least, the Buffalo Bills offense is terrible. They have two good guards on the offensive line but nothing else—much like real life—while the receiving corp's youth isn't represented well on the game behind Steve Johnson.

Fred Jackson is solid with an 80 overall, but CJ Spiller shows no signs of improving with a 75 overall. To build a winning offense for the future in Buffalo you essentially start off with two guards and one receiver. There is little else to work with.

Rebuilding the offense would be fine if the defense wasn't such a struggle also. Outside of rookie Marcell Dareus and Kyle Williams—who may be best used as trade bait—there is little impact players to build around that will be there in the future.

Shawn Merriman and Dwan Edwards best serve the team through getting a return in trades but don't expect to get anything higher than a late-third, early-fourth for either.

The secondary is decent in Buffalo but you wonder what its ceiling is. Losing Donte Whitner—presuming you update the roster—will come as a big blow as he was the highest-rated player on the team.

All in all, it is going to take quite some time to reach any sort of relevance with the Buffalo Bills. It may be more realistic to aim for a sixth-year Super Bowl appearance rather than a three-year change around.

Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jaguars don't get much love from anyone, not even their own fans. However, EA are being simply cruel to the Jaguars this year.

Their dominant offensive line's running efforts over the past few years have been totally ignored as their offensive line mostly resides in the low 80s.

Rookie Blaine Gabbert isn't receiving much love either as he sits with a 75 overall rating which isn't horrific, but doesn't guarantee that he will develop into an elite player either.

Needless to say Maurice Jones-Drew is a star but won't be around forever, while the receiving corp is obviously not getting any love if the offensive line isn't. The one thing the offense does have is good trade pieces if you want to take transition period to the max by getting rid of MJD, David Garrard and Marcedes Lewis.

Tyson Alualu and Terrence Knighton are keepers on the defense, but Aaron Kampman and Rashean Mathis will likely best serve the team as trade bait to bring in younger impact players.

The problem with the secondary is it is very deep but the starters aren't very good. There are a lot of players available from the 71-79 range but they won't be winning you any Super Bowls.

Paul Posluzny is a good player in the game, but it will be up to you whether he is worth having all that money tied up in as the defense lacks playmakers.

The Jaguars will be a fun team to build in Madden 12 because they have the pieces to move around while still having major flaws that need to be worked on.

Minnesota Vikings

I don't think I've ever seen a 73 rookie quarterback turn into an elite prospect. Christian Ponder is a 73 rating in this season's Madden.

With Ponder and Donovan McNabb ahead of him you would think the Vikings are in good shape, but McNabb isn't getting much done with an 82 overall that won't get better while Ponder will take forever to become a respectable quarterback if he even can.

Obviously Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin remain brilliant offensive weapons in Minnesota, but Peterson is playing an easy position to fill behind a woeful offensive line, while Harvin hasn't got a very good supporting cast.

It will be a tough decision whether to trade Peterson and reap a huge reward—this year's Madden allows the trade of future draft picks—or use him to build your offense around.

Defensively the Vikings aren't in much better shape.

The linebackers should be fine while there is still Jared Allen and Kevin Williams on the defensive line, but in Madden you can't rely on one or two players to carry you through because opposing players and the computer will focus on your soft spots.

Antoine Winfield receives what I feel is a generous 90 rating, but past that there is nothing in the secondary to be optimistic about as mostly the group's starters and backups are in the 70s.

The Vikings have a lot of pieces to use as trade bait or to build around, but they have quite a few holes to fill. Of the three teams they should be the easiest to mold into a championship contender the fastest.