Titans' Cam Ward Receives Shockingly Low Madden Rating

When the newest edition of EA Sports' "Madden NFL" franchise rolls around each year, it's common for the No. 1 overall pick to be among the game's best rookies, if not the best.

However, that's not the case for Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward this year.

On Wednesday, EA Sports revealed that Ward's initial rating in "Madden NFL 26" is a paltry 72 overall, which ties him for 69th among all rookies and places him as the lowest-rated No. 1 pick in years. For comparison, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, started out at 76 overall in "Madden NFL 25."

Ward isn't even the Titans' highest-rated rookie, as that honor instead goes to second-round linebacker Femi Oladejo at 74 overall.

Ward is at least the highest-rated rookie quarterback, but that's a pretty low bar. Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants and Tyler Shough of the New Orleans Saints are right behind him, both at 68 overall.

At the very least, ratings change on essentially a weekly basis once the season gets going. There's still plenty of time for Ward to climb throughout the season (not that he especially cares about that but a higher rating would correlate to him playing well), but even still, such a low rating to start out has to sting a bit.

Again, though, Ward's focus is on going out there and being the best version of himself.

"For the quarterback position in general, it's a growth everyday especially for a young player," head coach Brian Callahan told reporters last week. "There's a lot of things that I thought he handled really, really well in the spring. And it's carrying over those things you've learned and applying them in a little bit more intense setting. And now we get a chance to actually go play a little football, play against some different schemes. His development is a daily process and there's going to be things that we got to correct every day and there's going to be things that he's going to do really well every day that we're going to try to continue those things.

"So, every single day I think is going to be an opportunity for development for him, and I'm looking forward to it."