The ratings for Madden 26 are out, and many of them are a slap in the face to the Denver Broncos. Ratings don't mean anything at the end of the day, but fans would surely prefer their favorite team to have higher ratings across the board.
On paper, the Broncos' roster is a top-10 team in the NFL, period. It may even be top-5 depending on who you ask, and it's absolutely the best in the AFC West heading into the 2025 NFL Season. Many of the recent draft picks are beginning to pan out, and many have said that the Broncos' defense is going to be among the best, if not the best, in the NFL.
Well, Madden 26, for some reason, doesn't seem to think all that highly of the team's defense.
Denver Broncos' defense rated as the seventh-best in the NFL in Madden 26
This legitimately makes zero sense and is an objectively terrible rating. Denver's defense is rated at a modest 85, behind many defenses that the team was better than in the 2024 NFL Season:
🤣🤣🤣
— SleeperBroncos (@SleeperBroncos) August 1, 2025
Madden 26 has the Broncos as the SEVENTH best defense in the league 😑
They don't even have us as the best defense in our own division 🤦♂️
At a loss for words... pic.twitter.com/zcYuYdn3SM
The most egregious ratings here may honestly be the first three; how in the heck did the Dallas Cowboys' defense get rated above the Broncos'? What exactly did the Chiefs and Steelers do to sport a higher-rated defense than the Denver Broncos? Who made these ratings?
On paper, the Broncos' defense is the best in the NFL, and it's not particularly close. Denver sported the best pass rush in the NFL in 2024 and also had an elite secondary led by the Defensive Player of the Year in Patrick Surtain II.
These defensive ratings are going to age poorly, as the Broncos' defense is going to be an unstoppable unit and will excel in nearly every way imaginable, but it's also massively confusing how Madden decided that their defense was only the seventh-best in the NFL.