Madden: Attributes Explained

With Madden 17 coming just around the corner, I figured it was a pretty good time to dive into the ratings talk. Most Madden Vets think they know what everything does, and most Madden newcomers have no idea what half of the attributes do. There still is the unknowns like what exactly does awareness do and what exactly does play recognition do, but we have definite answers for almost all the ratings. For reference, I found an EA Blog that was written midway through Madden 15 discussing what specifically many of the ratings do. Most of the attributes are still the same, and the function that they serve really doesn't change from year to year, so expect them to all still serve the same way. 

Awareness- This is the toughest attribute to explain because it is the most important but the least important at the same time. It just depends on the situation. And mostly, at least for current Madden, it is one of the biggest influences on the overall. According to EA awareness is the reactions to other players on the field, both teammates and opponents. It's really a pretty vague description. But as far as any player you user, throw awareness out the window, it's useless. That means it is always not important for a QB since you always user that player. If you always user the LOLB on defense, awareness doesn't matter. But at the same time, awareness is then pivotal for the players you never control like offensive linemen. Awareness is just a general knowledge of football. Who to block, what gap to hit, stuff like that. In an older interview done by The 4 Verts Podcast (I will link it in the end to anyone who wants to listen to a good interview), Clint Oldenburg talked a little about awareness and said that for a defensive player it dictates stuff like how much of his designated zone he will cover, or if his awareness is really high how much he can effectively leave and re enter his zone to cover more ground. 

That is going to more than likely be by far the longest description of any attribute. Most of the rest are really very straightforward and will require little to no explanation past what EA has said they each do. We will start with the physical and more basic attributes. 

Speed- How quickly a player runs after fully accelerating

Acceleration- How quickly a player reaches full speed

Agility- How well a player cuts and how they respond to moving the left stick

Jumping- How high a player jumps

Stamina- How quickly a player gets tired

Injury- How often a player will be injured

Strength- Provides a boost for blocking, shedding blocks, power moves, throwing and trucking. This one is a little bit interesting. Most Madden fans know that strength is very important for offensive and defensive linemen because it is essentially what makes up the battle in the trenches. It dictates how well the offensive linemen can hold the block, as well as how the defensive linemen disengages the block. But something that is interesting about it is it's affect on power moves. Most players don't know that it also affected power moves. As well as being important for trucking and we can assume the way the player moves through the tackles and does or doesn't fall forward some. Another part of this attribute that is explained but probably some madden vets but most madden newcomers don't think about is the blocking aspect for both WRs and DBs. If you have a WR with high strength he can block better on runs, and beat the press and throw the DBs off easier. And the same applies to the DBs with how they react to the WRs. 

Now let's get into some more position specific attributes. I'm only going to hit a few. The ones like spin move and juke and catching etc., are pretty self explanatory as to what exactly they do. 

Trucking- How well a runner knocks down a defenders tackle attempt

Elusiveness- How well the runner jukes, makes spin moves, and breaks tackles. This one is another one that has a part to it not many people know and that is the breaking tackles. When you have the plays where the ball carrier basically slips the tackle whether that be from a move where he actually breaks the tackle out of a move, when a defender hits the ball carrier and the ball carrier just slips through it, or when the ball carrier kind of shrugs him off and sidesteps him; this is all determined by the elusiveness rating. 

Route Running- The receivers ability to create separation against man coverage. While not explicitly stated, I think it's pretty safe to say this is also the crispness of the routes that the receiver will run. Obviously, the more crisp and fluid, the more separation. 

Release- Determines the receivers ability to beat press coverage. This along with strength will make a big difference in how the receiver gets off the line. 

Throw Accuracy (Short, Medium, Deep)- Accuracy for passes under 20 yards, in between 20-40 yards, and greater than 40 yards. I wanted to include this for two main reasons. First is because some people don't know the actual breakdowns of the yards. And secondly because people say wow 20 yards that's pretty far for a "short" throw. In which yes I agree with this. But the throw is taken from where the QB is standing. if you drop back 8 yards and throw it to the first down marker, it's only an 8 yard pass in the stats, but you're really throwing an 18 yard pass. So from that viewpoint you can see where this fits in better. 

Impact Blocking- The ability for the blocker to pancake block, or knock the defender down. 

Hit Power- How hard a defender tackles and chance of fumble and injury

Pursuit- Ability to catch up to the ball carrier when unblocked or when the block is shed

Play Recognition- Ability to react to specific routes and run or pass. Determines if they fall for play action. Like Awareness this one is really vague. It says the ability to react to specific routes, but what routes? Is it really specific routes or is it just ability to react to any route? Unfortunately, I do not have this answer. But again, like awareness, it is useless when you user someone because you manually bite on the play action or jump a route 

Kick Return- Enhances broken tackles and elusiveness on kick and punt returns. I included this mostly because this was news to me, so I assume it will also be for mostly everyone else as well. The kick return rating doesn't just tell you how they are as a return man, but actually boosts some of their stats for it. 

That is the end of our attributes explanation. As I said, I wasn't going to cover all of them but if there is anything you guys want to know feel free to leave it down in the comments and I can help you out. Also, if you were interested in seeing the Clint Oldenburg interview where some awareness is discussed, check that out here, and if you wanted to check out a newer, more recent 4 Verts Podcast where they talk with Dustin Smith who is the new guy in charge of ratings you can see that here. 

As always thank you guys once again for checking this out, and if there is any specific questions you have feel free to leave it in the comments section here.