Tua Tagovailoa’s Madden rating leaves a lot to be desired

Miami Dolphins’ new QB Tua Tagovailoa gets his first Madden rating.

Madden is a staple of the video game world, and yesterday, they released the ratings of all the rookie quarterbacks. How did Tua Tagovailoa fare?

EA Sports’ Madden Franchise has been pumping out game after game for years and the newest iteration, Madden 21, is set to come out in August. Each year, fans eagerly await the games reveal of their incoming rookie class.

Madden adjustors go through a rigorous process of determining what rating to give each player based on how they played throughout their careers. As fans of the game know, they will assign a number 1-99 for every single attribute of a player from their throw accuracy to their awareness. This year is no different and if there is one rookie who Miami fans are excited to see it’s their new franchise quarterback.

Based on Madden’s rating system, Tua Tagovailoa graded out as a 73 overall player, second on the list of rookie quarterbacks behind number one overall pick Joe Burrow, who was given a 76. While I think the number for Tagovailoa is a bit low (I don’t think he is that far behind Burrow in any real statistic), I understand the rating as rookies generally are graded in that C range since they haven’t done a whole lot at the NFL level yet.

When you break down the rating a bit more, though, there are some interesting numbers that pop up for Tagovailoa, most notably his throwing accuracy and power. His throwing accuracy numbers for the game are at an 86 for short accuracy, 81 for medium accuracy, and 80 for deep accuracy, which is a solid number that is a good translation of his game from college. He also has an 88 throw power, which means he can definitely get the ball deep downfield.

He was given an 81-speed rating, which is a bit lower than expected, especially since Burrow was given an 83. He also got an 84 on his play-action rating, which is something that is exciting for Madden players since play action can usually open up the field of play, similarly to what it does in the real game.

On the downside of things, Tagovailoa only got a 21 on kicking power and a 14 on kicking accuracy, so if you ever need a backup kicker for any strange reason, Tagovailoa is not your guy.

Obviously, Madden ratings are no clear indicator of how a player will perform in any given season, but for die-hard players, these numbers matter as they try and bring glory to their favorite franchises. This is a pretty average number for a quarterback with incredible potential. I think it’s safe to expect that Tagovailoa if he plays and stays healthy, will get a nice bump in that rating towards the end of the season.