Madden 24 Ratings: Eagles WRs A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith Underrated?
With less than one month until "Madden NFL 24" is released, EA Sports has started to unveil some player ratings for the latest edition of the most popular football video game. The receiver position may be of most interest to Philadelphia Eagles fans.
On one hand, the Eagles have two of the 20 highest rated receivers in this year's edition of Madden. On the other hand, it's fair to wonder if both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith deserve to have even higher ratings.
Brown's 2023 opening Madden rating is a 91. That's nothing to sneeze at, but Brown is coming off a campaign where he hauled in 88 passes for 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns in his first season with quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles. Perhaps it's nitpicking, but a rating closer to the mid-90s feels as though it would be appropriate for the 26-year-old.
Among receivers, Brown is tied for the eighth-highest rated player in the game. No one is going to question Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings and Davante Adams of the Las Vegas Raiders being ahead of Brown, but some of the names rated higher or as high as Brown are questionable. For example, Terry McLaurin of the Washington Commanders (92) has a higher rating that Brown. Amari Cooper of the Cleveland Browns had the same 91 rating as Brown. If 32 NFL executives had the chance to pick from the three receivers, would more than 10 pick either McLaurin or Cooper over Brown?
As for Smith, the third-year pro received an 87 rating. This comes after he caught 95 passes for 1,196 yards and seven touchdowns in his second season. 17 receivers are above Smith, who shares the same 87 ranking with Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals and Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions.
Madden NFL 24 -- which features Buffalo Bills' quarterback Josh Allen as the cover athlete -- is set to be released on Aug. 15.
You can follow Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Philadelphia Eagles? Click Here.
Want even more Philadelphia Eagles news? Check out the SI.com team page here.
