Week 15 is in the books. That's somewhat frightening to think about. I feel like just yesterday, hopes were sky high across the league, and yet here we are, with playoff or draft implications on the line in every game. Fortunately, most teams have a young player they can turn to in their time of need, and many of those top young stars are featured on the Madden Next Gen team, competing against each other for the inaugural Madden Next gen crown. The race is heating up, View the whole Next Gen team here for a refresher before reading on.
Top Performers
Has Adam Rank become a Madden Nostradamus? For the second straight week he predicted a big day for Ryan Tannehill, and for the second straight week Tannehill delivered. In fact, he improved upon his Week 14 success by throwing for over 300 passing yards and three touchdown passes with no interceptions to defeat Tom Brady and the Patriots. Tannehill should be in line for a healthy bump in his Madden rating later this week. I'm still waiting for more people to recognize the emerging greatness of Bobby Wagner. Wagner was a monster in the Seahawks' shutout of the Giants on Sunday, notching 10 total tackles and 1.5 sacks. Wagner is quickly becoming one of the best young middle linebackers in the league, and I'm hoping his Madden rating soon reflects that fact. Antonio Brown continued to make the Steelers front office look like geniuses for extending him and letting Mike Wallce leave in free agency. Brown had five catches for 66 yards and one touchdown, and he also returned a punt 67 yards for a touchdown. All told, Brown had 144 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns in the Steelers' 30-20 victory over the Bengals. The guy just gets it done every week, no matter what the Steelers ask him to do. His arrow is pointing up, even with his rating already in the 90s. Patrick Peterson and Luke Kuechly were stupendous as always. But that's not a surprise to anyone unless he or she has been living under a rock for the last few years, or perhaps just binge-watching "Scandal" all season instead of watching football.
Solid Effort
Alfred Morris rushed for 98 yards on Sunday against the Falcons, and quietly has had a very solid sophomore season. He's currently fifth in the league in rushing yards, and has done it on a team that has been about as reliable as the weather in the Midwest. Morris deserves more respect than he gets, especially from the Madden ratings gods. Colin Kaepernick has yet to recapture the lightning in a bottle that ignited his run to Super Bowl XLVII last season with the 49ers, but on Sunday there were sparks. He completed 19 of his 29 passes for 203 yards with two touchdowns. His deep bomb to Vernon Davis was a thing of beauty. Trent Richardson (no this is not a typo) had a rock solid day. Actually, for Richardson's 2013 standards, it was a banner day. Richardson had 102 yards from scrimmage, and found the end zone for the first time since Week 4 to help the Coltshandle the Texans. We said last week that Richardson would need to consistently perform if he wanted to reverse his downward ratings trend, and his second consecutive solid outing might be just enough to keep him from falling out of the 80s. Stephon Gilmore reeled in his second interception of the year to help the Bills close out their game against the Jaguars. He saw a ratings increase last week, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he makes a small jump again after a good afternoon of shutting down the Jaguars wide receivers.
Out of commission
Casey Hayward, Kyle Rudolph, Randall Cobb, Doug Martin - INJURY. Nick Fairley - YET TO PLAY
Not their best Sunday
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Even though the Chargers defense played an outstanding game to shut down Peyton Manning and the Broncos high-powered offense, Manti Te'o barely had an impact in the stat sheets. He registered just two tackles in the win, and will likely see a dip in his Madden rating. Dion Jordan also had a quiet afternoon, only managing two tackles as well. He's still playing on a mostly rotational, situational basis, so his limited production is not surprising. Still, at some point it'd be great to see the Dolphins let him loose a little bit more to see what he can do.
Check back on Thursday for the updated ratings for the Next Gen team before Week 12, and be sure to vote for the "Madden NFL 25" Next Gen champ! Voting for this week will open after the Monday night game between the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions.
- Follow Alex on Twitter @AlexGelhar for the latest Madden updates, Jack Handey-esque deep thoughts and the occasional football analysis