Madden 21: Initial ratings for Devin Duvernay and James Proche

Madden 21 has Lamar Jackson on the cover, so this year’s Madden means a lot to Ravens fans. How are Jackson’s new receivers rated in the game?

Madden 21 isn’t out yet but some of the Ravens rookies have been rated by EA Sports. Player ratings are the most important feature of the EA Sports Video game and the most fun thing to talk about. Devin Duvernay and James Proche have their initial Madden ratings and without OTA’s and mini camps this is welcomed news.

A little context is needed when we talk about these Madden ratings. The first thing you need to know is that rookies aren’t given a ton of love in the Madden ratings. The highest rated rookie wide receiver is Henry Ruggs III, who has a 78 overall rating. By the way, Ruggs has a 98 overall in speed, which means throwing to him deep is going to be unfairly easy in this game. So when you see a rating in the 70-79 range, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad rating.

Devin Duvernay is a 71, which is just about what you would expect for a third round pick. He has a 92 in speed. He has a 91 in acceleration and an 87 in agility, so he’s going to be fun to have in the slot when you’re playing with the Ravens.

The biggest negative is his awareness of 67. To be honest, this is just what Madden does to keep the rating from getting too high. I think a player who caught 106 passes in his final season at Texas is coming into the NFL fairly aware. It’s not important, so we will move on.

The biggest thing EA Sports got wrong here is that he has an 84 in catching. That’s incredibly low for a player whose drop rate at Texas was 2.05. His hands are the biggest strength. Duvernay dropping the football at this point in his career is almost like Justin Tucker missing a field goal. That’s the only major qualm here so it’s hard to get too riled up. This is about what you expect the ratings to be.

James Proche is incredibly underrated. He was a sixth round pick, so it’s not like he should get top billing. Still, he shouldn’t be a 65 overall. He has an 88 in speed and a 90 in acceleration. He’ll basically play the way Willie Snead does just with 13 points less in his rating. Proche has an 85 in catching which is incredible considering how good his hands were at SMU. This is what Kyle Crabbs wrote about Proche’s hands in his profile for The Draft Network:

"“He’s had some awesome concentration grabs over his time at SMU. He’ll pluck the ball away from his frame no problem, blessed with disproportionate hands relative to his wingspan, which allows him to vacuum in balls away from his body. One of the more sure-handed WRs in the class.”"

Saying that Proche is an 85 in catching is a lot like saying that Lamar Jackson is an 85 in speed. I know Proche has to prove it at the next level, but this is just an arbitrary catch rating to keep his rating in line with sixth round picks. The highest rookie receiver rating for catching went to Isiah Hodgins of the Buffalo Bills. He has an 86 in catching. So no rookie is a plus 90 in catching? Sure. Right. Okay. This should be based off drop rate and at least in catching it should be graded the same way it is for experienced receivers.

The Bottom Line:

There is nothing to get all that upset about here, unless you want to be a stickler for how silly these ratings are developed overall. I think Duvernay is rated fairly other than his catching rating. Proche is evaluated to lowly but he’s the type of player that always would be by EA Sports. The catching rating is overall poorly distributed and the game developers kind of know this and don’t care.

The silver lining is that Proche has a 77 kick return rating which might make him more useful for your game play. I’m sure we will all overreact on July 17th when the Madden 21 ratings are fully unveiled. Duvernay is going to be your go to guy underneath. I could probably complete 100 slants and drag routes to him in the course of one season. That is the fun takeaway.