Madden NFL 2026 Player Ratings - 2025 NFL Season

2025 NFL Season / Madden NFL 26

Madden NFL 2026 shipped in summer 2025 for the 2025 NFL season. Launch ratings are set before the season is played, so they reflect the previous year’s performance - a player’s breakout shows up in the next year’s game.

Madden NFL 26 dropped August 14, 2025 with Saquon Barkley on the cover, the first Eagle to land the spot in 20 years. EA stacked the launch ratings around four 99-overall headliners: Barkley, Lamar Jackson, Justin Jefferson, and Ja'Marr Chase. Josh Allen shared the QB top spot at 99. Matthew Stafford slotted in at 88, which would prove conservative.

Stafford won MVP in the closest vote since 2003, edging Patriots second-year passer Drake Maye 366 to 361 and throwing for a league-best 4,707 yards. Seattle won Super Bowl LX, beating New England 29-13 at Levi's Stadium behind running back Kenneth Walker III. Jaxon Smith-Njigba took Offensive Player of the Year with 1,793 receiving yards on 119 catches, a Seahawks record. Myles Garrett took Defensive Player of the Year and broke Michael Strahan's single-season sack record with 23 takedowns, validating his 99 launch rating.

Madden's biggest miss this year was the cover star himself. Barkley fell from 2,005 rushing yards to 1,140 with a 4.1 yards-per-carry average, well short of the 99 overall EA hung on him. The other side: Drake Maye launched as a mid-pack QB and finished one vote shy of MVP, anchoring a 14-3 Patriots team with the league's best passer rating (113.5) and completion percentage (72.0%).