How did Madden rate the Saints prior to the 2009 Super Bowl season?

Madden ratings exist for two purposes: to make people mad and to inspire hilarious tweets from underrated players.

Regardless of their unimportance, Madden is one of the most well-known pre-season rating systems each year. Each team rating is concocted through a conglomerate of individual player ratings, which combine speed, acceleration, strength, agility, awareness and more.

That doesn’t mean that they always get it right, though.

This year, Madden 23 gave the New Orleans Saints an 82 rating heading into the season. That lands them tied with the Titans and the Colts for the 17th best team in the league. Many Saints fans have high hopes going into the 2022 season, making the 82 rating a bit insulting.

But how accurate have these ratings been in the past for the Saints? Let’s take a look back at how Madden rated the Saints prior to their historic 2009 Super Bowl season.

The top-rated team for Madden 10 was the New England Patriots (93), led by a prime Tom Brady. The top-rated team in the NFC was the Giants (89).

Prior to the 2009 season, Madden rated the Saints as the 23rd best team in the NFL with a 74. Yep, that’s right. Only nine teams were supposed to be worse than the Saints the season where they went 13-3 and won Super Bowl XLIV.

Some of the abysmal teams that had a higher rating than the Saints that season included Washington (4-12), Seattle (5-11) and Buffalo (6-10).

It’s fair to say that the Black and Gold exceeded expectations for their team rating. So what did the individual ratings, that are causing chaos in 2022, look like in 2009?

As for the positives, Drew Brees was at the top of his game, and Madden respected that. He was rated a 96 heading into the season.

One individual rating from Madden 23 that has left Saints fans frustrated is RB Alvin Kamara’s rating of a 90. It turns out that in Madden 10, the running back duo of Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas was also underrated.

Bush was rated a 79 and Thomas was rated a 77. This RB duo would go on to play a huge role in the Super Bowl XLIV season.

Another seemingly underrated faucet of the 2009 team was the cornerback unit. The highest rated cornerback of this uber-successful unit was rookie Malcolm Jenkins with a 79. Randall Gay was given a 75, and Tracy Porter was given a measly 68.

That “68” went on to have one of the most important plays in the history of the franchise in Super Bowl XLIV.

This season, the Saints have reloaded their wide receiving core to be one of the best in franchise history. Madden 23 rated Michael Thomas a 90, Jarvis Landry an 83, Chris Olave a 76 and Deonte Harty a 77. The average rating of the 2022 WR1 through WR4 is 81.5.

For Madden 10, the highest rated wide receiver was Marques Colston with an 87. Following Colston was Lance Moore (81), Devery Henderson (67) and Robert Meachem (59). The average rating of the 2009 WR1 through WR4 was 73.5.

Some other interesting, underrated players from Madden 10 included CB Jabari Greer (77), SS Roman Harper (75), OLB Scott Shanle (68) and C Jonathan Goodwin (67).

To summarize, Saints fans shouldn’t be paying too much attention to the Madden 23 ratings. In August, the true identity of this Saints team and their true potential will be evident to the rest of the league.

You can see the full list of team and individual ratings for Madden 10 here.

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