Another year, another Madden video game coming to a console near you.

Fans willingly or unwillingly will flock to stores to pick up the newest (and only) copy of virtual professional football when it hits physical and digital store shelves on August 16th.

With yearly video games releases from the same franchise come yearly traditions.

For players this could be anything from noticing how many features have been removed from franchise mode, or how the offensive lineman don’t pick up blocks as they should.

"It’s too realistic", "it’s not realistic enough."

"It’s reliant on animations and not skill."

Whatever your tradition may be, it’s more often than not, a negative view on a game like Madden.

Another game, another mostly unsatisfied customer.

For the players who are represented in the game, the idea of a negative tradition is not far off from their experience with the game.

Rather than worry about the game play or various game modes, they worry about what number EA Sports put next to their name.

Every digital player, representing a real life counterpart, has an “overall ranking”.

This ranking helps the player understand who’s not only good in the game, but how good.

On a scale of 1-100, fans can know who’s a 70 overall or a 95 overall.

For example, behold the Top ten Wide Receiver's in this years upcoming game:

As one could imagine, extra competitive athletes get extra competitive in most scenarios, including when a game developer decides one of their peers is better than them.

Justin Jefferson is likely bothered by the fact that Tyreek Hill is one overall better than him, just as Ja’Marr Chase is likely bothered that he sits 5 behind Jefferson.

Players and fans alike combine together to largely be unhappy with their own overall rating, or the rating of a player on their favorite team.

Today, Los Angeles Rams fans and BYU Cougar fans came together to unite against the rating of a certain Puka Nacua.

You may notice that the 2023 NFL Sporting News Rookie of the Year is no where in the top ten.

Crowded room, lots of great talent on the list, that’s fine.

But the 2023 NFL All-Rookie Team member cant be far behind right?

Wrong.

Nacua, a 5th round pick out of BYU took the NFL by storm by finishing as one of the most impactful receivers in the game in year one.

When the season ended, Nacua’s season looked a bit like this amongst other Wide Receivers, per Pro Football Reference:

17 games played and started.

105 receptions on 160 targets, 9th in the NFL.

1,486 yards, 4th in the NFL.

1,575 all-purpose yards, 5th in the NFL.

6 touchdowns.

68 first downs.

87.4 yards per game, 6th in the NFL.

9.3 Yards per target.

When it came to pure yardage, few did it better than the year one Pro Bowler.

Yet, Madden 25 decided Puka’s debut wasn't enough for a rating higher than 85.

Puka Nacua can be found in the 32nd spot on EA’s own website displaying the top WR’s in the game, with an overall rating of 84.

If you haven't played the game, that number may not seem to shabby, if you have played the game you understand that rating is very much mid tier.

Nacua finds himself one overall better than guys like Nico Collins, George Pickens, Diontae Johnson and Calvin Ridley.

Puka had 105 receptions last year, none of those players had more than 80.

Nacua shares the 84 overall label with two other pass catchers in Denver’s Courtland Sutton and newly signed Jaguar, Gabe Davis.

This likely wont make fans feel any better as Nacua had 46 more grabs than Sutton and 714 extra yards, despite having 4 less touchdowns.

As for Gabe Davis, it’s a bit more laughable as Puka outpaced the former Bills receiver by 60 receptions and 740 more yards with only one less touchdown.

Despite being the best WR rookie last year in receptions and yards, EA Sports decided to give fellow 2023 draft class peer, Zay Flowers, a higher rating at 85.

Zay Flowers is good, yet you would struggle to find one thing statistically he did better than Nacua last year, other than one rush touchdown.

The ratings are prone to adjust and will do so to best match Nacua’s on field performance as the season progresses.

It could only be a matter of time before he moves up the rankings, past the likes of Mike Williams, Jaylen Waddle and Tyler Lockett.

Yet in the moment, fans and even Puka himself have some solid reasoning to feel as if the Rams wideout wasn't given proper respect going into the new year, virtual or not.

And if we know fans, expect this to be an often ridiculed thing among Ram and Cougar nation until EA makes the call to move it on up.

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