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Underrated series challenges pro players to raise their Madden NFL 21 ratings

NFL players taking issue with their Madden NFL 21 rankings will soon have an opportunity to prove their worth with an upcoming digital series called Underrated.

Ozzie Mejia

September 2, 2020 1:20 PM

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Many Madden NFL diehards take player ratings seriously. Debates over which player carries a higher rating than another can be surprisingly intense among hardcore fans. You know who takes Madden NFL player ratings even more seriously? NFL players, that's who. Some may take umbrage to the rankings given to them by EA Sports for this year's Madden NFL 21. However, an upcoming digital series called Underrated is about to give these players a chance to prove the people at Electronic Arts wrong.

Underrated (fully titled "Underrated Presented By State Farm") is an eight episode series hosted by Bleacher Report's Adam Lefkoe. Each episode will focus on one NFL player who will seek to raise specific attributes for their digital counterparts in Madden NFL 21. The first episode will focus on Denver Broncos rookie wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who will seek to raise his numbers for the medium route running and catch in traffic categories. In order to do this, Jeudy will take part in a series of skill tests designed to test his acumen on the field.

Subsequent episodes of Underrated will focus on other position players. This includes Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marcus Peters, Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, and Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker. Madden NFL ratings adjustors will work in conjunction with the production team at Bleacher Report to determine whether these player performances are strong enough to justify any changes to their player rankings.

“Our annual player ratings are always one of the most hotly debated features we unveil in Madden NFL and we are always blown away by the passion gamers, fans and NFL players show when they get involved in the conversation,” Madden NFL Ratings Adjustor Clint Oldenburg said via press release. “Working with Bleacher Report on this series was a great opportunity to showcase a little more of our ratings process, while giving some of the stars of the NFL a chance to not just tell us why their ratings should be improved, but show us.”

Underrated is being produced by the teams at Bleacher Report and Mandalay Sports Media, the latter most recently coming off their work on the acclaimed documentary series The Last Dance. The first episode is set to premiere on Wednesday, September 9 on the B/R Gridiron channel on the Bleacher Report app, which you can pick up on the App Store and Google Play. As for Madden NFL 21 as a whole, well... player rankings may be the least of the game's problems if our review is any indication.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?