Madden NFL 21 Update Adds New Player to the 99 Rating Club

Madden NFL 21 is welcoming a new member to the 99 OVR Club. Achieving that perfect rating is a [...]

By Aaron Perine

Madden NFL 21 is welcoming a new member to the 99 OVR Club. Achieving that perfect rating is a high honor in the game. Recent years have seen select players receiving special cleats as recognition. DeAndre Hopkins had the catch of the year in the NFL and now he joins Christian McCaffrey, Aaron Donald, Patrick Mahomes, Michael Thomas, Stephon Gilmore, and Russell Wilson in that lofty tier. The entire sports world was dumbstruck by the miracle Hail Mary at the end of the Arizona Cardinals last game against the Buffalo Bills. With little time left, Cards quarterback Kyler Murray uncorked a heave towards the end zone. Hopkins managed to reel in the throw despite being covered by three defenders and brought the crowd in the Valley of the Sun to their feet. That's more than enough to justify the ratings tweak that landed him in the 99 club.

Comicbook.com reviewed Madden NFL 21 and praised the improvements to this year's edition. Charlie Ridgely called it a grand step forward after some public perception of the series treading water. Fans can still be critical, but 21 shows that EA is making some steps in the right direction.

"It's no secret that EA's Madden NFL franchise has had a monopoly on football video games for years, even decades. If you love football, you play Madden, and there's not really another choice. Unfortunately for gamers, EA has seemingly taken advantage of that fact as of late, churning out a near-carbon copy of the same game every fall, just with new players and ratings," he explained. "The lack of changes has been infuriating, to say the least, especially when there isn't another option on the market. This year, at least, the folks at EA are finally listening. Madden NFL 21 is a long-overdue upgrade."

"Madden 21 isn't a perfect game by any stretch, so it's not like this thing is going to revolutionize football gaming going forward. Not every choice made by this new iteration is going to be universally loved by players," Ridgely continued. "That's okay! The point is, rather than just accepting free money by being the only football game on the market, Madden 21 switches things up, while keeping a lot of the elements that worked in previous installments, making it the most enjoyable entry in the past five years."

Do you think Hopkins deserves the bump to 99 OVR? Let us know down in the comments!

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