As you may have heard, Sean Payton can get — how should we put this? — rather salty at news conferences.
As you also may have heard, Moody Sean was especially salty at his first news conference of training camp late last month.
“Sean must’ve just seen the Broncos’ new Madden ratings,” one of our Grading The Week pooh-bahs muttered after Grumpy Sean harrumphed himself off the stage at Dove Valley. “And knows how little he’s got to work with.”
Well, we’ve all seen the ratings now.
And Team GTW’s gotta say, in Payton’s defense — we’d be kinda grouchy, too.
Broncos’ 25 Madden Ratings — D
Let’s just say the good folks down at Electronic Arts’ Florida offices have higher expectations for the CU Buffs and Deion Sanders than they do for Payton and his Broncos.
Big picture? Cover your eyes. There are some individual highlights that we’ll get to, but the macro is … ugly.
For starters, the Broncos have six players who notched an overall “80” rating or above in “Madden 25,” per Friday’s ratings release: CB Pat Surtain II (95 overall); RG Quinn Meinerz (87), LT Garett Bolles (85), WR Courtland Sutton (84), HB Javonte Williams (80) and RT Mike McGlinchey (80).
Point of comparison I: The roster featured eight guys who rated at an 80 or higher after Week 18 last season. And the difference is that stars Justin Simmons (who rated a 90 in January) and Jerry Jeudy (81) are gone as part of the post-Russell Wilson divorce salary purge.
Point of comparison II: The Chiefs have 16 players rated at 80 or higher. The Chargers have eight at 80 or higher. The Raiders have 10 at 80 or higher.
Point of comparison III: Big Russ had a 75 rating in the game at the end of the ’23 regular season. Wilson was somehow bumped up to a 76 rating for Madden 25 with the Steelers, so your guess is as good as ours on that one. This number was clearly assigned before Russ tweaked his calf during conditioning drills, an injury that already puts the 35-year-old’s “redemption” tour somewhat in doubt. Poor guy.
Point of comparison IV: Payton may be slow-playing his QB competition/decision, but EA sure isn’t. Rookie Box Nix, ratings-wise, is the winner over Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson. Although that ain’t saying much. The former Oregon Duck got a 71 rating, the same as fellow rook JJ McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings. Wilson scored the second-best mark with a 68, while Sparky Stidham got a 62.
Point of comparison V: Nix opens the preseason as the fourth-highest-rated QB in the AFC West, behind usual suspects Patrick Mahomes (99), Justin Herbert (87) and jorts proponent Gardner Minshew II (73, tops on the Raiduhs). Zach Wilson (68) is the best of the rest, followed by Aiden O’Connell (67 with Vegas), Carson Wentz (64 with the Chiefs) and Easton Stick (62 with the Bolts).
Point of comparison VI: EA rated 20 Broncos at 65 or lower. They had 17 at the end of the ’23-24 season. Lovely.
Professional women’s rugby coming to Denver — A
A remote high-five to Women’s Elite Rugby, which tapped Denver as one of its initial markets for the professional women’s rugby league’s 2025 launch.
Let’s hope for similar news on the professional women’s soccer front before the year is out. As of early Friday evening, the Mile High City accounted for two of the top 11 women’s soccer scorers in the Olympics (Mallory Swanson with three goals, Sophia Smith with two). And two of the top 10 Olympic assist leaders (Lindsey Horan, Smith, with two apiece). The USWNT’s 4-1 win over Germany last Sunday reportedly logged an average of 4.2 million television viewers. The iron for a pro women’s soccer team in Denver should be getting hotter by the week. All we need — well, other than a new stadium and training complex, probably — is for the NWSL to finally be looking to strike.
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