A "Madden Team". Even if you have never heard the phrase, you'll recognize what I am talking about as soon as I define it. A Madden Team is a team that is inexplicably better in a videgame than it is in real life, whether that be because of injuries, suspensions, underachieving, or just plain bad rankings by the video game maker. The Redskins of the past five years come to mind. Bad to mediocre on the field, but in Madden you could wreck some people with the Skins. Another one that pops to mind is the Colorado Avalanche of the late 90's. They were good in real life, but the trio of Roy, Sakic, and Forsberg made them unstoppable in video games. The Atlanta Hawks have even been a Madden team in recent years, taking advantage of game developers' tendency to overrate young players to make a roster of Josh Smith, Josh Childress, and Marvin Williams much more formidable than it should be.
So who is it going to be in this year's version of Madden? Here are a few early candidates;
Chicago Bears:
No, this doesn't mean that Rex Grossman to be vastly overrated. The Bears' appeal as a potential Madden Team stems entirely from one man; Devin Hester. As has been previously discussed, while the Bears' move of Hester to WR could have minimal impact on the real NFL season it could potentially transform the Bears into a Madden juggernaut. Adding Hester and his first ever 100 speed rating to the offensive side of the ball could lead to players exploiting his abilities in a Reggie Bush type role. If the Madden developers give Hester a catch rating high enough that he can grab a swing pass 4/5 times, watch out. The defense is already stacked, and the addition of Hester just might Rex-proof the Bears' virtual offense.
Detroit Lions:
Even though a gimpy Kevin Jones might not make much of an impact for the Lions this year, he may be the key to the Lions offense being hellish on Madden this year. Jones had an 87 overall rating on last year's game and this year he will be joined in the Lions backfield by Tatum Bell (84 last year) and TJ Duckett (84 last year). The trio of Jones, Bell, and Duckett will give players the best situational set of RBs (besides LT, LT, and LT for the Chargers) in the game. Jones will be a decent every-down back, but the added luxury of having the speedy Bell as a 3rd down / receiving back and having the game's top short yardage guy in Duckett will create matchup nightmares for opposing defenders. That doesn't even take into account that the Lions will also add Calvin Johnson to the WR corps along with Roy Williams, making the virtual version of the Lions offense truly fearsome.
New York Giants:
The Giants have been one of the biggest Madden Teams in recent years, and that doesn't look to change this year. On defense the Giants could have a huge real life/video game discrepancy if Michael Strahan does in fact retire. Strahan had a 97 rating last year, and shouldn't fall off much this year. Where the video game Giants are truly exceptional though, is on offense. For starters, Eli Manning and Jeremy Shockey are always overrated. It has been revealed that Shockey will be a 92 in this year's game, and in spite of being one of the lowest rated QBs in the league since he has been drafted Eli Manning somehow continues to get Madden ratings in the upper 80's (88 last year). Not only do the Giants have overrated players, they have players whose skills are uniquely suited to exploit some of Madden's game play weaknesses. For example, Plaxico Burress' height makes it nearly impossible to stop a player using the Giants from completing high balls to Plaxico on quick slant patterns. In addition to Plaxico the Giants also have Brandon Jacobs, who has one of the highest "Trucking" ratings in the game. What that means is that pretty much anytime a player wants, they can slam Jacobs straight up the gut for 3-4 yards, even on higher difficulty settings. To make matters worse this year, Jacobs overall rating has risen from 80 to 85 and he is joined in the backfield by Reuben Droughns, who also has an extremely high truck rating. One of my friends is a highly rated Madden player on PC, and he uses the Giants and these two strategies almost exclusively.
New England Patriots:
If you didn't already know, the Patriots are the highest rated team in this year's game with a 97 overall team rating. I'm not saying that they don't deserve to be rated that highly but there are a few factors that could cause them to be almost unstoppable in Madden, kind of like how the Colorado Avalanche were good in real life yet unstoppable in video game form. The Patriots have two linebackers that may or may not have much of an impact in real life depending on injuries (Teddy Bruschi and Roosevelt Colvin) who will still be highly rated in the game (Both were rated 89 overall last year). The video game Patriots could also have the services of Asante Samuel even if the real player sits out until week 10. Add those three wild cards to a defense that already features highly rated players such as Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Eugene Wilson, Vince Wilfork, and Adalius Thomas, and you can see why the video game Patriots D will be extremely formidable. On offense the Patriots added Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Dante Stallworth to the WR corp, suddenly turning a poor unit into one of the top 10 in the game. Adding those weapons to Tom Brady and Laurence Maroney will make the Patriots one ridiculously good offense.
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