Steelers Troy Polamalu tied for top Madden 15 ratings for strong safeties
By Christopher Carter
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com...-2014-xbox-ps4
As the Aug. 26 release date approaches, EA Sports has been releasing the ratings of the top players at each position in the NFL.
For the past two weeks, EA Sports has begun its revealings of player ratings for the new edition of their most popular sports franchise, Madden 15. To build the excitement for fans, they have released the top five rated players at each position on the field, as well as the top five rated rookies that will be on the game's starting rosters.
Yesterday they revealed their final position: strong safety. The top two players tied with a 93 overall rating where the Seattle Seahawks' Kam Chancellor, and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu.
This reveal showed that EA Sports sees Polamalu as not dropping off in his production coming into the 2014 regular season. His numbers so far seem identical to what they were for the final roster download of Madden 25 (the current edition of the franchise signifying 25 years of its existence). Many players begin to lose their ratings as they age into their 30's, as have many of the dominant players for the Steelers in recent editions, but Polamalu will at least keep his numbers from last season.
Troy Polamalu has been one of the most dangerous pieces to the Steelers' roster for several years in EA's top-of-the-line football franchise. His speed and acceleration have always made him very quick to move between guarding one receiver in the zone and flipping to another in a second to make a key interception. His speed coming into 2014 will be 88; while it's not the best in the league at his position, it boosts the more important parts of his attributes.
What makes for effective safeties is higher ratings at agility, acceleration, play recognition and pursuit. Polamalu's 92 agility rating make him of the quickest safeties in the game. It also allows for users to switch between assignments and string out wide running plays much easier. While his acceleration rating was not listed on EA's reveal page, you can reasonably expect it to clock in at 91, which is where it was last season. This is extremely important, even more so than his speed rating, because this allows for Troy to get off the ball faster than most players.
Madden 25 allowed for a defensive rotation of players in the Steeler's playbook that put the team's starting strong safety at right outside linebacker, which became a money play position for Troy Polamalu. With a speedy and hard hitting Shamarko Thomas to replace Troy in the secondary, users can feel free to put Troy on the edge and allow him to get off the ball with his high acceleration and get after the quarterback faster than any other Steelers' pass rusher. Once the blitz begins to draw the attention of your opponent, dropping Polamalu into a hidden zone coverage often leads to him making a play on the ball thanks to his 91 play recognition attribute. That combined with an 85 pursuit rating allows for Troy to make solid plays against the run as well.
While Troy was not rated as the hardest of the hitters at his position, he did get a respectable 84 hit power rating. Comparatively this was lower than the likes of Kam Chancellor, T.J. Ward, Reshad Jones and Eric Berry, but still allows for Polamalu to force fumbles against opposing players. To my knowledge, EA Sports has yet to create an attribute that increases a player like Polamalu's innate ability to strip the ball from opposing players outside of overall awareness ratings (which you can expect his to be an 87). This will be interesting to see how his hit power rating fluctuates in Madden 15 this season, especially if he continues to lead the league in forced fumbles from defensive backs as he did in 2013, with five.
Polamalu isn't the fastest safety anymore in Madden, however he has all the tools to annoy your opponents with every play. His 87 spectacular catch rating allows for him to make one handed interceptions and great sideline grabs that have often generated obscenities being spewed at me by online opponents for their complaints that Polamalu couldn't make certain plays. Keep switching him between linebacker and safety to confuse your opponent with edge rushes from the linebacker position, and then have him play against corner routes on 3rd down plays to take away the money routes other players like to use when they are in trouble.
With all but special teams' positions revealed, Polamalu is the only player from the Steelers that made the top five in their respective position. No Antonio Brown, no Ben Roethlisberger, Lawrence Timmons or any other hopefuls. Shazier also didn't crack the top five rated rookies, but there's nothing to say that he won't have a shot to do that this season. The Steelers probably won't that high of a rating on the August 26th release date of Madden 15, but if they can win some games, you may start to see some of their players get more recognition as the season gets underway.
I don't think Troy is still a 93. Hopefully though!
