Those who watched theMadden NFL 21competitions over the course of this last year were treated to a show put on by the most talented gamers in the industry. As analysts dug deep into the numbers and watched the replays, there became a clear trend regarding what the most successful pros were doing; they were running the ball at an extremely high clip. Football in video games has come a long way since tossing up nonstop Hail Mary passes.
RELATED:Madden 21: Best Cowboys Theme Team
The Madden Ultimate Team mode is one thing, but the trend absolutely carries over to the Franchise mode as well. The best halfbacks influenced outcomes in tight games more often than not. Controlling the clock is key to establishing winning seasons on the higher difficulty settings. Now that the football season has ended, the final ratings are out for the halfbacks and it’s worth seeing where they ended up.
10Joe Mixon - 88 OVR
Joe Mixon was once part of a three-person backfield and, for a time, analysts once thought to be the weakest of the three options. By making the most of his limited carries and shattering expectations, he’s one of the lone bright spots on a struggling Bengals team.
He’s now the lone star on his team and short ofmaking all the right moves in Face of the Franchise modeand joining the Bengals, nobody is coming for his leading back role anytime soon. Some GMs are thinking that the Bengals might draft another running back to return him to a committee, but fantasy owners are hoping these are empty rumors.
9Ezekiel Elliott - 88 OVR
After getting a monster deal a few years ago, huge expectations were placed on Ezekiel Elliott going into 2021. After a slow start, the thinking was that Dak Prescott was perhaps stealing the show and Elliott wasn’t getting enough handoffs.
However, a season-ending injury to Prescott didn’t help Elliott much. He remains one of the league’s premier backs (people aren’tmaking memes in the gameabout how bad he is yet), but as the third-highest ranked running back going into the season, he finished at ninth and many even think that could be too high for him.
8Saquon Barkley - 89 OVR
With the weight of the world on his shoulders to try and lift up a struggling Giants franchise, Barley delivered excitement and energy to the field that new York hadn’t seen for a long time. But, but like how thelatestMaddengame was hit-and-miss, this electrifying play, both running and passing, did not always translate into victories.
Saquon’s rank dropped during the year, perhaps unfairly. After ditching Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr, Barkley remained as one of the new bright spots left on the team. And, unfortunately for him, football is a team game.
7Josh Jacobs - 90 OVR
Josh Jacobs entered 2021 as the tenth highest-rated halfback, which many considered to be charitable. Fantasy players had long seen his value, but there was some consideration that he was the beneficiary of complete Raiders offense.
RELATED:Madden NFL 21: The 10 Best “The 50” Cards In Ultimate Team
Jabobs moved up in the charts and in his ranking by proving that he might have been making the team look better than they actually were. Las Vegas had a disappointing campaign, but Jacobs performed in a way that made him part of the solution and not part of the problem.
6Aaron Jones - 90 OVR
The 2020-2021 NFL season took its toll on many halfbacks. The best example of this might be Aaron Jones, whose rating stayed the same yet he rose in the rankings. While other halfbacks were showing that their 2020 season was flukey, Jones was showing remarkable consistency.
The Packers are in a bad place on cap space going into the next season, but they still managed to sign Jones to a significant contract. The fact that Green Bay is willing to make cuts elsewhere shows how much they value his steady contributions.
5Dalvin Cook - 94 OVR
Dalvin Cook’s ascent from a 91 to a 94 OVR was more than just a small vindication for Vikings fans. For the longest time, they had been told that their star running back being carried by Kirk Cousins, Stefon Diggs, Kyle Rudolph, and Adam Thielen.
Cook was not the product of a fortuitous situation after all. Diggs went to Buffalo and the other three had mediocre statistics in the 2020-2021 season. The Vikings could no longer hide their talented young halfback and neither could the rating adjusters over atMadden.
4Alvin Kamara - 94 OVR
It’s hard to say that any halfback was more disrespected than Alvin Kamara. The Saints had slowly increased his snap count and fantasy football players had him as a top-three selection in almost every format.
Yet he received an 88 OVR going into the season. Over the course of the season, as Kamara was rewarding the Saints,Maddenplayers, and fantasy football owners, his score was adjusted upward by a total of six points.
3Derrick Henry - 95 OVR
Usually, when a player is sitting at 95 OVR or better, the conversation is about if they are overrated. In Henry’s case, the fact that he isn’t the top rating halfback or a 99 OVR indicates that whoever is in charge of the ratings completely missed Henry’s last season.
RELATED:Madden NFL 21: The 10 Best “Ghosts Of Madden” Cards In Ultimate Team
Derrick Henry became the eighth player of all time to break the 2,000-yard rushing mark in a single season. Oh, and he led the league touchdowns as well. If he’s a 95 OVR, then no other halfback should be 90. One can only hope he gets his rightful 99 OVR inMadden NFL 22.
2Nick Chubb - 96 OVR
Cleveland has been high on most experts' picks to win the Super Bowl for the last two years. Their reasons usually involve deep conversations and Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr, Jarvis Landry, or one of those other players they shelled out the big bucks for.
When speaking of value, nobody even came close to being as valuable as Nick Chubb. The second-highest rated halfback in the game is working on a rookie contract and making next to nothing, all while not-so-quietly being the best player on his own offense.
1Christian McCaffrey - 98 OVR
Look, nobody was offering much resistance to Christian McCaffrey becoming the only 99 OVR halfback inMadden NFL 21. He was only the third player in NFL history to get 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in a single season during 2019, and he did so on a team that had zero identity.
He was injured for 2020, so it’s hard to say if the adjusted did the right thing by bumping him down a point. Either leave him at 99 OVR or take him off of the top ten. Gamers and Pathers fans are both hoping that McCaffrey returns to the 98-99 OVR score that he rightfully earned prior to going on injured reserve.
