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Late last week, EA Sports released all of the launch ratings for the 2019 NFL Draft Class featured in the new Madden NFL 20 video game. The entire Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 draft class is listed below, as well as some of the key ratings for their individual skills:
All of the players have some interesting caveats in their ratings. Here are the ones that really stand out to me:
Devin Bush: 72 Overall
With Devin Bush being the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, I would have expected his overall rating to be higher than 72 for the launch, as that has him as the 28th ranked rookie. However, when I dove into the ratings a little more, I noticed EA tends to hand out lower ratings for middle linebackers than they do for other positions (Devin White of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only got rated 74).
Diontae Johnson: 69 Overall
Even though Diontae Johnson doesn't have the highest rating, he does have a lot of higher rated individual skills that should make him a favorite among Madden players looking for lower tier players that can be useful. Johnson has very good speed, agility, and acceleration ratings which are all 91 or higher. One thing I found weird is how low his route running traits are, as they are lower than DK Metcalf's of the Seattle Seahawks ratings, who had a very limited route tree in college. It is also surprising that Metcalf is the 8th overall rookie in the launch ratings after being a 3rd round pick.
Sutton Smith: 66 Overall
With Sutton Smith being a 6th round pick, and coming from a small school, I figured he'd be about 4-5 points lower than where EA rated him. However, Smith does possess very good athletic traits which could have fluffed up his rating a bit. It'll be interesting to see how his ratings change if EA has to account for his abilities as a fullback in the Steelers offense.
Zach Gentry: 63 Overall
The first thing that stuck out to me was the speed rating that EA gave Gentry, which is 80. I have no clue how they gave an 80 speed rating to someone who ran a 4.90 40 yard dash, but they did. Another rating that stuck out was his strength, which they rated 72. Considering Gentry had the lowest amount of bench press reps for all runningbacks, linebackers, and tight-ends at the combine with 12, it surprised me they gave him a respectable strength rating. As someone who mainly plays with the Steelers in Madden, I am not complaining about his rating, but a bit surprised he got rated so favorably in certain individual areas.
Here is a link to all of the Steelers 2019 Draft Class ratings as well: https://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/player-ratings/?i=1&t=29&s=ovr_rating:DESC&v=true&=undefined
Comment below to let us know your opinions on the Steelers 2019 Draft Class Madden Ratings!
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