Let's Use "Madden 25" Ratings To Analyze Which Kickers Will Make The Best Kickoff Coverage Defenders Under The New Rules
Todd Rosenberg. Getty Images.It's Madden ratings season baby!
With the new kickoff rules going into effect this season there's going to be a lot more asked of place kickers. While pitchers in the NL are no longer required to do something they never practice doing, place kickers in the NFL better be hitting the weight room to prepare being involved a heck of a lot more in the tackling department. The new kickoff rules sure seem to make it more likely for return men to break out of the front line, leaving kickers the last line of defense to prevent a house call. In fact, I spoke with a source intimately involved in it's development who agreed once coaches figure out how the hell to design effective blocking schemes.
That leaves us with a question. Which kickers in the NFL are the most prepared to "step up to the plate" under these new rules? To run the proper analytics, I used the best data possible to answer such a question: Madden 25 ratings. I mean, what else do we have to go on here? So let's have some fun. I scraped all ratings for the 2,316 players in this year's Madden now that all the ratings have dropped and today we'll be honing in on the 41 included place kickers.
There they all are graphed below and sorted by total defensive ratings (plus speed) to give us an idea of who is likely to be a good… let's say.. Defense Included Coverage Kicker which is term I just made up that you can anacronyze on your own time.
Cairo Santos leads the way at a total rating of 274 with Seibert and Elliott next at 263. As a Bears fan, I am delighted to see we have a kicker who doubles as a return defender. It isn't everyday the words "Chicago Bears Kicker" and "double" are used in a sentence that doesn't trigger PTSD.
Now you might think some of the defensive components are more relevant for kickoff return defense than others. Probably right. That's why I ordered the individual defensive rating colors left to right by what I feel are the most relevant (tackle) to least (press). Let's run through a few names here to see if we can figure out who the DICK GOAT is likely to be.
Cairo Santos
We'll start with the overall leader here to get things going. One of the biggest pros for Santos other than being the overall defensive ratings leader is he leads by a decent margin in "Pursuit" which is the second most relevant trait according to my focus group (consisting of just me because that's how focused it is).
Here is where Santos falls in all related categories with his blue dots, some of which are kinda covered up in some by the orange dots representing all other kickers.
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The biggest con here is that he is also the runaway leader in play recognition for a place kicker. The second lowest rating by the focus group in terms of importance. I don't know about you but trying to decipher what play the kick return unit is going to do probably doesn't exactly require the Peyton Manning of kickers. Reminds me of the same joke I make every week at flag football when the other team goes into the rare "pickup flag football huddle". Right before the snap I'll yell "IT'S A PASS PLAY!". That's about the level of complexity we're dealing with when we talk about play recognition on a kickoff.
Justin Tucker
The best kicker perhaps in NFL history being dead last isn't all that surprising but leads me to wonder: are kickers even the best position to carry out kickoff duties? That's actually a half-serious, half-stupid question, half-joking question. But think about it. Wouldn't it be easier to just train a safety to pooch the ball into the landing zone? Not gonna lie, I'd have at least given this a college try if I was a coach in summer camp. How much skill is really required here? Keep in mind the play doesn't start until the return man touches the ball or the ball goes into the landing zone (whatever it is), but the point is that hang isn't as meaningful as it used to be. Why not have an extra defender for the very real possibility of facing a one-on-one situation? I am half stupidly and jokingly asking. But also half seriously.
Jake Elliott
You could make the argument that Elliott and Santos are basically equals since they are dead even in the three most imporant defensive ratings. Really the only thing Santos has on him afterwards is play recognition which we've discussed consists of the complex decision tree of "touchback" play and "tyring to score a touchdown" play.
Nick Folk
Interesting finding here for Nick. He DOMINATES kickers in "power moves" with a rating of 15 vs literally every other kicker's 10. Not gonna lie, I figured this was a typo until I noticed Folk's "finesse moves" was a 20 when literally every other kicker also had just a 10. That's no longer a random typo. Something is going on here. Sharps clearly have intel not available to the public in the "Nick Foles moves" departments.
You might not like it, but this is what peak moves looks like:
POWER!
George Gojkovich. Getty Images.FINESSE!
Boston Globe. Getty Images.Greg Joseph
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Greg the leg is middle of the pack here but he does lead all kickers in tackling - which is the most important trait. But he's always been a sneaky good "trucking" kicker as well which is a trait that seems have been changed this year. Safe to say we will never have another Ryan Santoso who popped an insane (for a kicker) 41 a few years ago. "Ryan Santos" of course literally translates to "Hispanic Big Cat".
But only time will only tell if any of these Madden 25 ratings translate to the field. And you know what? I think Cairo Santos is still the guy most capable of establishing dominance as the DICK god. Maybe play recognition is sneaky important afterall. Maybe I'm just an idiot that doesn't know a good DICK when I see one. That's fine. But you better believe I'll be tracking kicker kickoff tackles throughout the season to see how close Madden 25 ratings came to predicting numerous place kicker factors never before captured on film.
That includes Nick Folk's "finesse moves".