Madden 13 Ratings: Not Much Love for Vikings Quarterbacks

Early August means two things to football fans: training camp and new Madden ratings. The first promises new hope and the second, lots of anger and frustration for fans who think their favorite players were short-changed.

On that subject, we have in our hot little hands the Madden 13 ratings for the quarterbacks. No surprise that Aaron Rodgers tops the list with a 99 overall. After Rodgers come Tom Brady and Drew Brees at 98. And Eli “Elite” Manning at 97. And Vikings starter Christian Ponder…

Looking…looking…down the list…

Ah, here he is. #36 overall. Yup, seriously. Ponder is tied for 36th-rated QB in Madden 13. Keep telling yourself it’s just a video game, it’s just a video game. Geek opinions on football aren’t worth crap.

So how does Ponder break down in the eyes of the Madden programmers? He gets a 75 overall rating, the same as Vince Young, Charlie Batch and Rex Grossman. Is this fair? Jake Locker also gets a 75, so I guess it’s just based on experience level. Both played some in 2011 but didn’t exactly wow anyone. Maybe they’ll get better this year but maybe they won’t. 75 feels like sort of a “wait-and-see” rating.

In specific skills, Ponder’s best attribute is stamina where he rates a 95. In toughness he gets a 91. He gets a 90 for short passing accuracy but only a 65 for deep passing (contrasted against Rodgers’ 94). His throwing power is 84, which isn’t half-bad, but for awareness he only gets a 66. Guess that’s the standard non-star second-year QB awareness?

So I guess the verdict here is, Ponder has a long way to go to impress the people who make video games. Have a feeling Christian isn’t too worried about this. Leslie Frazier and Rick Spielman, those are the guys he wants to impress.

As for the other Viking quarterbacks. Joe Webb got an overall 67 with predictable high marks in running speed and that kind of stuff, while Sage Rosenfels for some reason got a 70 (no rating for Rosencoptering, which of course would be 100). I haven’t played Madden in years but I’m assuming you can still alter these ratings at your leisure? I’d make Joe Webb a Super-QB and go out there and kick some ass.

Oh and one more tidbit: on the big name rookie QBs entering the league this year. Andrew Luck is an 84 out of the gate, and Robert Griffin III is an 83. Not sure what that’s based on outside of hype. Tim Tebow rates a 77 which is garbage. He’s NOT better than Christian Ponder.

(Via Operation Sports)

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