Madden NFL 12 - Arizona Cardinals Launch Roster

Yesterday, Madden 12 was released and NFL fans across the Country will now be parked on their couches playing as their favorite teams (or for some people, cheesing with the Raiders and Eagles online because of all their speed). A few weeks back I posted the initial ratings for the Cardinals on here, but those weren't the final rosters. More like the rosters from right after the NFL Draft.

Now that the game is out, the rosters have been updated to reflect all of the offseason moves that have taken place since the lockout ended. So lets take a look at some of the guys who had their ratings change, and what the ratings for some of the new Cardinals are.

Of course, everyone here is wondering what the rating for new Quarterback Kevin Kolb will be, and he is a solid upgrade over Derek Anderson in the game who was the Cardinals highest rated signal caller with a rating of 70 in the initial rosters. Kolb starts off the year in Madden with an overall rating of 84, a throw power rating of 88 (pretty good), short accuracy rating of 88, intermediate accuracy of 85, and deep accuracy of 74. John Skelton is rated at 69, Max Hall is at 68, and Richard Bartel is last with a 62. Also interesting with the player traits system is how Hall and Skelton were both described as "oblivious" at sensing pressure. Kolb was described as "trigger happy"

A.J. Jefferson probably had the biggest boost out of everyone with the Cardinals. He was among the lowest rated players on the team with an overall rating of 55, including an awareness rating of 25 which makes you think he was somewhere between trying to stick your tongue into fan blades or "eating a rock for breakfast and helplessly soiling himself" like Ethan Albright. Currently, he is a 66 and his awareness rating has jumped up to 47 which is what you would expect from the normal rookie. He is currently the 4th corner, Patrick Peterson and Richard Marshall who are at 82 and 81 overall are the starters. Greg Toler is listed at 75.

Mike Leach the long snapper is actually in the game now. He is a Tight End and is listed at 71 for snapping the ball.

Beanie Wells received a slight boost from 73 to 75 in his overall rating. LaRod Stephens-Howling is currently the backup at 72 overall. Alfonso Smith is at 58 overall but he does have a speed rating of 94 which leads the backfield and increasing his awareness rating which is currently at 34 makes his rating a lot better (boost it to 65 and his rating goes up to a 65 overall). Ryan Williams is at 73, and you can still use him in the game even though he is injured.

Williams also has the wrong number in the game by the way (32 instead of 34).

With the Wide Receivers, Andre Roberts moved up from a 66 to a 71, and Early Doucet dropped from 74 to 71. Larry Fitzgerald is still the leader with a 96 overall rating (and the highest rated player with the Cardinals) although his speed rating seems a little bit low at 87 (for comparison, Andre Roberts has a 92 speed rating) and I think Larry should have an 89 for his speed rating. For some reason in the traits section, Fitzgerald is also listed as a "no" under "fights for extra yards" which is not what I have seen watching him play where he will try to drag players on his back an extra couple of yards whenever he can.

As for some other notable player ratings:

Adrian Wilson is at 92, Darnell Dockett and Jay Feely are at 89, Kerry Rhodes is at 88, Todd Heap is at 84, Daryn Colledge and Deuce Lutui are at 82, Calais Campbell and Stewart Bradley are at 80 (Bradley and Paris Lenon who is a 78 also start at Middle Linebacker by the way), Lyle Sendelin is at 76, Ben Graham and Daryl Washington are at 74, Levi Brown is at 70, Jeff King and Anthony Sherman are at 69, Rob Housler is at 66, and finally David Carter and Demarco Sampson are at 60.

If anyone wants to know some more of the specific ratings, ask and I'll post them.

And programming note, I will also be simulating games on Madden during the regular season, and posting the results on here. Similar to a feature that Andrew ran in 2009.