EA Sports, the video game company that makes Madden football, announced the return of former NFL player Colin Kaepernick on Tuesday. In addition, despite having not playing for more than three years, the company ranked him higher than half the starting quarterbacks in the league.
Kaepernick was afforded a rating of 81, which is better than half the league’s current starting quarterbacks.
Only sixteen quarterbacks rate higher than Kaepernick in the Madden 21 ratings, according to a tweet by Dov Kleiman.
But Kaepernick hasn’t played a game professionally since the end of the 2017 season.
According to Sportscasting.com, Kaepernick was not exactly a top quarterback during his last season in the pros.
“Kaepernick … went 1-10 as a starter and threw for just 2,241 yards in his 11 starts.,” the site said. “In the 2016-17 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick was in the bottom half of production for quarterbacks. His 2,241 yards passing ranked 29th in the league. His quarterback rating was also near the bottom of the league. He ranked 23rd in the NFL with a 49.2 QB.”
As Outkick the Coverage noted, the sudden top rating for Kaepernick “is pure pandering for attention on the part of EA Sports.”
Ben Roethlisberger is tied with Kaepernick in the Madden rating. Here are the sixteen QB’s Kaepernick outranks according to the video game’s stats:
- Tyrod Taylor: 69
- Dwayne Haskins: 70
- Gardner Minshew: 70
- Drew Lock: 70
- Mitchell Trubisky: 72
- Daniel Jones: 72
- Sam Darnold: 73
- Ryan Fitzpatrick: 74
- Teddy Bridgewater: 75
- Joe Burrow: 76
- Jared Goff: 76
- Kyler Murray : 77
- Josh Allen: 77
- Cam Newton: 78
- Derek Carr: 79
- Ryan Tannehill: 80
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