NEWSLETTER
Mitch Trubisky said he was “salty” when he got a whiff of his first rating for the Madden NFL video game franchise last season. Imagine how he’ll feel when he sees that his rating this year is even worse than it was last year.
Complete ratings were released on Tuesday and Trubisky was given a 74 overall rating. Uhhhh, that’s not great. In fact, Trubisky’s Madden rating is the worst among all starters. And because the knife needs to be twisted a little more, Trubisky ranks behind rookies Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold, and Lamar Jackson, as well as backups like Teddy Bridgewater, Josh McCown, Jacoby Brissett. Even Patrick Mahomes, who played just one game during his rookie season, rated ahead of Trubisky in Madden.
This isn’t to say Trubisky deserved to be ranked among the elites at the position. After all, he threw as many touchdowns as he did interceptions, averaged just 182.8 passing yards per game, completed just 59.4 percent of his passes, and posted a 77.5 rating. Those numbers aren’t going to do much to score points with the Madden game developers. But to be ranked behind a bunch of quarterbacks with little to no experience is whack.
Clearly, the video game developers responsible for his rating haven’t caught wind of Trubisky’s Year 2 projections, which have him passing for nearly 4,000 yards and throwing 23 touchdowns. I can’t imagine Trubisky being ranked in the low-to-mid 70s if he puts up 3,951 passing yards, bumps his TD% from 2.1% to 4.1%, and continues to keep his INT% at a low rate. If Trubisky puts up numbers that could set new Bears single-season passing marks, his rating will shoot up by year’s end.
If you’ll recall, Trubisky was given an overall rating of 76 around this time last year and it left him a handful of points short of the 82 rating he believed he deserved for his rookie season. So that means Madden knocked a few points off Trubisky’s rating after his 12-game debut season. Yuck.
To be clear, Trubisky is far from the worst quarterback in the game. That distinction goes to Carolina’s Taylor Heinicke. However, that he’s only a few points ahead of third-stringers Mike Glennon and DeShone Kizer makes me want to rage. I mean, if it was worthwhile to rage over video game ratings.
