Who is the best Madden player on the Patriots roster?

John Madden Football cover from 1988

Madden 15 was released on Tuesday earlier this week and some of the biggest fans of the video game franchise are NFL players themselves. Recently Patriots cornerback Alfonzo Dennard proclaimed that he was the best Madden player on the team and even Chandler Jones supports Dennard’s opinion stating:

Alfonzo Dennard is pretty good at Madden. He’s probably the best on the team right now. Marquice Cole was pretty good. Right now, it’s Alfonzo Dennard. We go neck and neck, but I’ll give him the title for now.

The Madden franchise has evolved drastically from it’s original release in 1988. The gameplay has become so much more realistic that some have even stated that playing Madden could help prepare actual NFL players for Sunday action. In 2013 Drew Brees stated:

"The games are getting more lifelike every year, and everything in Madden is based on what really happens on the field. The plays are the same, it is updated all the time and you can go through a lot of stuff without having to get hit. I can definitely see a time when these things are used a lot more to help players."

What is startling about Madden is how accurate the simulations have been in predicting game outcomes. In the past 11 Super Bowls Madden has been 8-3 in predicting the winner. It has even gotten some details correct according to Ben Silverman:

...game between the 49ers and the Ravens. Not only did Madden correctly pick the winner (Ravens) and the final spread (three points), it accurately had Joe Flacco as MVP and was one attempt and two completions shy of getting Colin Kaepernick’s stat line exactly right. Or how about the year prior, when Madden picked the Giants to beat the Patriots, missed the spread by one point, predicted the exact score for the Patriots in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and correctly pegged Eli Manning as the MVP?

One of the main reasons why the Madden series has become so popular is the fact that EA has exclusive rights to produce an NFL video game. Not everyone is content with Madden having an exclusive deal, in June of this year Mike Florio wrote a scathing article saying:

The good news is that, per the league office, the exclusive EA license lasts only a “couple more years.” The bad news is that, thanks to all the money earned over the last decade by selling basically the same game with different players in the software and a different picture on the cover (which has been hyped into something far more significant than it is), EA will surely be able to extend the exclusive license, if it wants.

Whether you are a fan of the Madden franchise or not, you cannot deny the popularity of the eccentric Madden 15 commercial starring Dave Franco and Kevin Hart which has already garnered over seven and a half million views at the time this post was published, check it out below.



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