Madden 23: Teams With Most Dominant Rosters and Player Ratings
The 2022 NFL season may not be here yet, but Madden season has arrived. This week, another edition of the popular football video game series is dropping, as gamers will be hitting the virtual gridiron once again.
While Madden 23 isn't officially released until Friday, many people have already been playing the game this week. That's because EA Play members got a 10-hour free trial that could be activated Monday, while people who pre-ordered the All Madden edition got three days of early access that started Tuesday (technically, late Monday night).
Even if you don't have Madden 23 quite yet, you still likely know that ratings for players and teams have already been released and are available to view at EA.com. So you can start thinking about which teams you may want to use most frequently or which ones you may want to take into franchise mode.
Here's a look at the teams that have the best rosters at the start of this year's game.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (92)
Offense Rating: 92
Defense Rating: 85
Top Players: QB Tom Brady (97), DT Vita Vea (93), MLB Lavonte David (92), WR Mike Evans (92), RT Tristan Wirfs (91), C Ryan Jensen (90), WR Chris Godwin (89), LOLB Shaquil Barrett (88), FS Antoine Winfield Jr. (87), RB Leonard Fournette (87), RG Shaq Mason (87).
The Buccaneers didn't make it past the divisional round of the playoffs last season, nor did they make any huge offseason moves. However, they have the highest overall rating in Madden 23, as the game clearly expects them to have a strong showing again this year.
Brady may be 45, but he's still the top-rated quarterback in Madden 23 after his brief retirement early this year. And with Evans, Godwin and Fournette surrounding the star QB, it makes sense that Tampa Bay's offense has a 92 rating.
Although the Bucs' defense isn't quite as strong, they have some exciting players to use in the front seven, especially David. The 32-year-old middle linebacker has 85 speed and 93 tackling, so he should be great to play with on that side of the ball.
Buffalo Bills (89)
Offense Rating: 89
Defense Rating: 88
Top Players: WR Stefon Diggs (95), CB Tre'Davious White (93), QB Josh Allen (92), RE Von Miller (92), FS Micah Hyde (91), SS Jordan Poyer (90), MLB Tremaine Edmunds (84), TE Dawson Knox (83), LT Dion Dawkins (83), CB Taron Johnson (82).
The Bills may be the most well-rounded team in this year's game, and for good reason. They may have lost in the Divisional Round of the playoffs last season, but they've played extremely well over the past few years.
Allen should be one of the best quarterbacks to use in Madden 23, given his 89 speed and 99 throw power (the best in the game). It will be fun to once again throw deep passes to Diggs, who is most likely to come down with them.
Buffalo has three players with 90-plus ratings in its secondary, and the safety duo of Hyde and Poyer is the best in the game. Now that the unit also has Miller, one of the top pass rushers in the league, it should be even better to play with this group in Madden 23.
Los Angeles Rams (88)
Offense Rating: 85
Defense Rating: 88
Top Players: RE Aaron Donald (99), WR Cooper Kupp (98), CB Jalen Ramsey (98), MLB Bobby Wagner (91), QB Matthew Stafford (85), RT Rob Havenstein (85), HB Cam Akers (83), TE Tyler Higbee (83), WR Allen Robinson II (82), LOLB Leonard Floyd (80).
The defending Super Bowl champions may not be the top team in Madden 23, but they still got plenty of respect in the ratings. That's especially the case for the Rams' defense, which features Donald, one of only four players in the game with a 99 overall rating.
Los Angeles' defense got even better from last year with the addition of Wagner, who signed with the team in April after spending his first 10 NFL seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. So if you're facing a potent offense in this game, playing with the Rams could be a good way to counter that.
While Stafford doesn't have too high of an overall rating, he still has a strong arm with 95 throw power as well as solid accuracy (90 short, 83 medium and 88 deep). So Madden players should have no trouble using him to get the ball to Kupp, one of the top wide receivers in the game.
Green Bay Packers (88)
Offense Rating: 86
Defense Rating: 87
Top Players: QB Aaron Rodgers (96), LT David Bakhtiari (94), CB Jaire Alexander (94), HB Aaron Jones (89), DT Kenny Clark (89), LOLB Rashan Gary (89), SS Adrian Amos (88), MLB De'Vondre Campbell (87), RT Elgton Jenkins (85), ROLB Preston Smith (82).
The Packers no longer have Davante Adams, who is the only wide receiver in Madden 23 with a 99 overall rating, as they traded him to the Las Vegas Raiders in March. However, their offense will still be one of the better units in the game, thanks to Rodgers and Jones.
Green Bay's receiving corps is filled with mostly unproven players. But if some of these playmakers step up and impress in real life early in the season, their Madden ratings could greatly improve along the way.
Although Alexander is the only defensive player with a 90-plus rating on the Packers' defense, they have plenty of solid players on that side of the ball. With such a well-rounded roster, Green Bay is likely to be a popular team to use in Madden 23.