'Madden NFL 26' ratings: Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes as fourth-best QB among notable surprises

EA Sports spent the last couple of days releasing the player ratings for "Madden NFL 26," which is now just over two weeks away from its release date of August 14, 2025. As per usual, there are a whole lot of ratings that make sense ... and a bunch of them that seem more than a bit controversial. 

In the space below, we're going to reveal the top 10 ratings at each position, and give a little bit of commentary on which of these ratings feels notable for one reason or another -- whether it be a player who is too high, too low or just right. 

Not only is Patrick Mahomes not first in the quarterback rankings; he's fourth behind each of Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. This despite the fact that he is still widely considered the best quarterback in the league, as we saw in ESPN's poll of the top 10 quarterbacks, where he received 60% of the first-place votes. And it's not like Mahomes is just behind the top trio. He's rated a 95, while Allen and Jackson are 99s. He's a few points behind them. It's pretty wild. 

There is, however, a significant gap between that quartet and the rest of the quarterbacks, which makes a good deal of sense.

The wildest ranking in perhaps the entire release is that of Joe Mixon. He averaged just 4.1 yards per carry in Houston last year -- a mark he hasn't topped since TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHTEEN. He ran for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns last year thanks to his elite workload volume and so he made the Pro Bowl, but it is wild to see him ahead of some clearly superior backs both on the top-10 list and off it. 

Similar to the Mahomes discussion above, it's pretty crazy to see Christian McCaffrey fourth on the list. He was injured last year and that apparently means several backs are now better than him when he was pretty clearly considered the best in the league this time a year ago. (He was on the cover and rated a 99.)

Ja'Marr Chase joining Justin Jefferson in the 99 club feels right. Those two are pretty widely considered the best receivers in football, with the next group of guys (usually led by CeeDee Lamb but led by Amon-Ra St. Brown in the ratings) checking in just behind them.

The notable rating here is for Terry McLaurin. He put up basically the same receptions and receiving yards totals last year as he had in pretty much every prior year of his career, totaling 82 grabs for 1,096 yards after averaging 80 for 1,091 over the previous four years. The difference is he finally found the end zone, notching 13 touchdowns in 2024 after totaling 18 in the previous four years. That, apparently was enough to move him into the elite tier of wide receivers.

George Kittle has created a bit of separation for himself away from the other top tight ends. Given his all-around play (including blocking), you can't really say it's not deserved. 

What's interesting, though, is that Brock Bowers landed fifth here despite being a First Team All-Pro as a rookie and landing the top spot among league insiders and execs in ESPN's tight end rankings for 2025. A 90 rating is pretty damn high, but Madden must want to see more before anointing him. 

The top offensive linemen list having two Eagles shouldn't be a surprise here. Lane Johnson being the only 99 in the league shouldn't either, but it's notable that he checks in ahead of Penei Sewell, given than Sewell was the one who secured the First Team All-Pro nod in each of the last two years. 

Laremy Tunsil checking in ahead of a bunch of tackles despite leading the NFL in penalties last year is also of note, as is the absence of guys like Tyler Smith, Quenton Nelson, Trey Smith and Landon Dickerson from the interior group. 

It's always worth noting how the top five group of edge rushers shakes out. 

Coming off his fourth First Team All-Pro berth in five seasons and only a year removed from winning Defensive Player of the Year, it's not surprising to see Myles Garrett check in first. Micah Parsons is ahead of T.J. Watt here despite ranking behind him in ESPN's edge rusher poll, while Maxx Crosby and Nick Bosa again check in fourth and fifth and Aidan Hutchinson and Trey Hendrickson flip spots in sixth and seventh.

The two Texans give Houston one of the game's best pass rushes, but it's somewhat surprising to not see Jared Verse among the top 10 after his explosive rookie season in L.A.

Chris Jones and Dexter Lawrence being tied atop the interior linemen ratings feels right. The only surprise is that they didn't create more distance between themselves and the rest of the group. Having Derrick Brown be closer to those two in rating than he is to, say, Jalen Carter in ninth doesn't necessarily track with the disparity we see among these guys on the field. 

Brown being third at all feels like a bit of a reach -- you could pretty easily make the case for any of the other seven guys behind him on the list for that spot.

This is probably the hardest position group to judge given the players' varied responsibilities, and the difference between what it means to be a 4-3 off-ball linebacker and a 3-4 off-ball linebacker. The "best" 3-4 linebackers are actually edge rushers (like Watt), so they wind up in that group above instead of here. 

That said, Warner is clearly the class of the group and Smith is clearly behind him, so the top of the last at least seems right. You can quibble with some of the other rankings, where it feels like name recognition is keeping some mainstays above where they should be at this point in their careers, and where the Jaguars somehow have two of the top 10 here. 

The reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Patrick Surtain II, checks in first here. That tracks.

Sauce Gardner gets a ton of respect and barely drops in the ratings despite a down season, while Jaire Alexander remains in the top 10 despite almost never being on the field in recent seasons. He's played just 14 of 34 possible games over the last two years, and has played more than seven in a season only once in the last four years. He's really good, but this feels, again, like the game giving a nod to name recognition.

Kyle Hamilton was the top safety in ESPN's poll and is somehow seventh here. Given his play on the field and the versatility he brings to the role, I can't say it makes a ton of sense to find him behind six other players at his position.

If you're looking for No. 1 overall pick Cameron Ward in these ratings, you won't find him until you scroll allllllll the way down on the page. Ward is the SIXTY-SECOND highest-rated rookie in the game. He's not even the highest-rated Cam in his own draft class. (That'd be Giants running back Cam Skattebo, somehow.) Even with all the highly-rated players on the list above, the most notable thing feels like the major snub for the least-discussed No. 1 pick in recent memory.