If you're looking for the weirdest Madden rating of the year, you've found it.
Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the National Football League and the cornerstone of the league's most dominant team, has been dropped to a 95 overall rating in Madden NFL 26. That places him fourth among signal callers, behind Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens, and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals.
For anyone paying attention to the NFL over, say, the last seven seasons, it doesn't make sense.
We needed a reason to complain about Madden ratings anyway.
Mahomes is only 29 years old and already owns three Super Bowl rings with the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that has played in the Super Bowl in five of the last six seasons. Even in what some would call a “down year,” he still threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 26 touchdowns and had the Chiefs on the edge of a historic three-peat.
Mahomes remains the single most dynamic player in the league, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer before he ever hits his thirties. He's the one athlete every defensive coordinator fears most, and he's got a long runway to play through his prime ahead of him. Most importantly, any general manager would take Mahomes first in any potential re-draft of NFL talent.
That’s why seeing Mahomes' Madden rating tumble is so jarring, especially when you stack it against his own history. Mahomes entered the league with a modest 76 in Madden 18, and then shot up to a 90 the following year. He hit the coveted “99 Club” for three straight seasons thereafter before suffering a brief dip to 95 in 2023. Mahomes bounced right back in the 99 Club from then on, but now he's back at 95?
For fans, the math doesn’t add up. The Chiefs keep dominating. Mahomes keeps dazzling. And the video game keeps glitching. It's just another receipt for Mahomes and the Chiefs.