Madden ’23 doesn’t like Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers

EA Sports’ Madden 23 is the premier professional football video game in 2022. As ratings are slowly released, how is the new-look receiving corps looking for Kansas City?

Since 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs have been one of the most popular teams in EA Sports’ Madden games. The high-powered offensive blended itself for easy touchdowns and high-scoring affairs. The Chiefs certainly look different on offense this year, without wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Let’s just say the Madden 23 game creators noticed the change.

No Chiefs wide receiver is graded higher than 80 overall, a league-average mark for football players in Madden.

Free-agency acquisition Juju Smith-Schuster is the highest-rated Chiefs wide receiver, at 80 overall. He had an 86 overall rating at the beginning of Madden 22, but his six-point decrease is amongst the biggest and most surprising in the game. Mecole Hardman, who is entering his contract year, is a close second at 79 overall, while fellow speedster Marquez Valdes-Scantling is 76 overall. Both Hardman and Marquez Valdes-Scantling keep the speed in Kansas City, as both have 95+ speed ratings.

The fourth-best-rated Chiefs wide receiver is where the surprises start. Josh Gordon’s 74 overall rating edges out rookies Skyy Moore (72) and Justyn Ross (69). Four other Chiefs receivers have 68 or 67 ratings—nothing more than depth options on the Madden scale.

Moore feels very underrated in the game, despite his college tape and highlights. His route-running ratings are all lower than Hardman or Smith-Schuster, by considerable margins. A 95 acceleration and team-leading 89 change of direction rating will help Madden players utilize Moore well, but he still feels like an underappreciated player in the game.

Valdes-Scantling enters the 2022 season as Kansas City’s presumable WR2, so rating him so far below Hardman is surprising. Hardman has better ratings than MVS in several key areas, such as catching and jumping ratings. 2022 tape would show MVS is at least equal to Hardman in many areas, if not noticeably better.

While the virtual world of Madden will have no impact on the gridiron’s reality, a rating snub can motivate players considerably. Just look at Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and his Madden reaction.