Last week, EA Sports released the ratings for the top five players at each offensive position for Madden 18. Every player who made the top five ranking on the offensive side of the ball received an overall rating of 90 or higher, but it’s a different story for the defensive players.

Over the past few days, EA Sports released the rating for the top five players at each defensive position for Madden 18 and it was a lot of harder for the defensive players to receive a 90 or higher.
 

DEFENSIVE TACKLES

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Only four players in the entire league received a rating of 90 or higher, while New York Giants’ Damon Harrison just missed out on a 90 rating due to his low speed rating. Ndamukong Suh comes in with the highest ranking at 93, and he’s followed up by Geno Atkins (91), Fletcher Cox (91), Gerald McCoy (90) and Damon Harrison (89).

 

OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS

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Only two defensive players received a 99 overall rating in Madden 18 and one of them comes from the outside linebackers position. Denver Broncos’ Von Miller leads the way with a 99 rating and he’s followed up by Khalil Mack (97), Justin Houston (93), Sean Lee (91) and Chandler Jones (88). The Oakland Raiders have two other outside linebackers ranked in the top 20 at the position and they are Aldon Smith (85) and Bruce Irvin (84).

 

MIDDLE LINEBACKERS

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No surprise here as Carolina Panthers MLB Luke Kuechly leads the way with a 98 overall rating and he’ll most likely be rated 99 by the end of the season. Behind Kuechly is Seattle’s Bobby Wagner (93), who is followed up by Dont’a Hightower (89), C.J. Mosley (89) and Navorro Bowman (88).

 

DEFENSIVE END

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The other defensive player rated 99 overall comes from the defensive end position, only it’s not Houston Texans’ J.J. Watt, it’s Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald. Rated 99 overall, Donald leads the way in Madden 18 at defensive end, but Watt is right behind him with a 98 rating. Coming in at third on the list is Philadelphia Eagles’ Brandon Graham (95), who is followed up by Cameron Jordan (92) and Calais Campbell (91). A few players just missed out on the cut and those players include Michael Bennett (90), Cameron Wake (89), Melvin Ingram (89), Joey Bosa (88), Jason Pierre-Paul (88) and Olivier Vernon (88).

 

SAFETIES

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Kam Chancellor leads the way at the safety position with a 95 overall rating. Tied for second on the list is Kansas City Chiefs’ Eric Berry and Seattle Seahawks’ Earl Thomas II, who both start the game rated 94 overall. Behind them are Minnesota Vikings’ Harrison Smith and Baltimore Ravens’ Eric Weddle, who both own a 93 overall rating. There are a few other safeties rated 90 or higher in the game who didn’t make the top 5 list and those players are Devin McCourty (92), Landon Collins (92), Reshad Jones (91).

 

CORNERBACKS

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Not as stacked as the safety position in terms of players ranked 90 or higher, the list of top 5 ranked cornerbacks is still a good one. The Denver Broncos take full control of this position with Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib leading the way with 94 overall ratings. Right behind them is Malcolm Butler (92), Patrick Peterson (91) and Josh Norman (90). Richard Sherman is the only other cornerback who received a 90 rating who didn’t make the list, while Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins each received an 89 rating.

In your opinion, which players do you think deserve to be in the top five rankings and which ones don’t belong there?

(H/T EA Sports)