Predicting Vikings Madden NFL 26 Rating: Secondary Edition
Here we go, again. Last go around, we predicted the Madden NFL 26 for the Vikings players at offensive skill positions. This time, we’re doing the secondary unit, which has changed a good chunk since the release of last year’s Madden NFL 25.
Check out my predictions for the ratings of the Minnesota Vikings secondary in last year’s installment of EA Sports’ Madden NFL series here, if you’re interested.
CB Byron Murphy Jr. – 89 OVR
Madden NFL 25 End-Of-Season Rating: 84 OVR
Right out of the gate, I’m predicting a big jump for the 2024 NFL Pro Bowler. Murphy Jr. played in his second year for the Vikings last season and didn’t disappoint. He was one of the best corners in the NFL, notching the T-3rd-most interceptions in the NFL and earning his first true big-boy NFL contract – a 3-year/$54 million deal to remain in the Twin Cities with $34.8 million guaranteed and an $18 million signing bonus.
Byron Murphy Jr. gets some due respect from the game developers here, and rightfully so after a brilliant 2024 NFL season.
CB Isaiah Rodgers Sr. – 79 OVR
Madden NFL 25 End-of-Season Rating: 77 OVR
Another jump in the secondary here, this time for the newcomer, Isaiah Rodgers Sr. The defender agreed to a 2-year/$11.045 million contract to commit to the Minnesota Vikings earlier this year in March during the opening stages of the 2025 NFL Free Agency frenzy. Just a month before, Rodgers Sr. was busy thumping the Kansas City Chiefs with the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, some valuable winning experience he can bring to the Vikings’ CB room with many young names like Jeff Okudah, Mekhi Blackmon, and Dwight McGlothern.
EA Sports gives him a small good-faith bump here to better match the new contract that he earned in real life.
CB Mekhi Blackmon – 74 OVR
Madden NFL 25 End-of-Season Rating: 75 OVR
Mekhi Blackmon’s Madden NFL 25 rating remained stagnant at a 75 OVR all season long throughout the game’s cycle, of course, because the young cornerback was robbed of his sophomore season by his ACL when it tore during the opening day of training camp last July.
Blackmon isn’t a super well-known player, being a third-round selection two years ago in 2023 and probably being regarded as a bit of a reach for the most part for people who knew what they were talking about. Turns out, he showed some promise in 2023, but with him not being a big enough name to deserve niceties from EA Sports, they drop him down one more overall point from the rating he maintained for all of Madden NFL 25.
S Harrison Smith – 87 OVR
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Harrison Smith has received an 87 OVR from EA Sports over each of the last two Madden NFL installments, and I don’t foresee a change of heart from the developers here.
This would be Harrison Smith’s 3rd consecutive year of an 87 OVR, 11th consecutive year of having at least an 87 OVR, and 13th consecutive year of having at least an 84 OVR. This means that Smith hasn’t had below an 84 OVR since his rookie year in 2012, when he was given a 75 OVR; rookies usually aren’t given anything above a 77 OVR.
Here are some pretty silly and funny ways to put this into perspective: Harrison Smith has been an 84 OVR in Madden since:
- The first couple of months of Barack Obama’s second term as United States President
- 8 years before the COVID-19 outbreak
- The Xbox 360 and PS3 were the current generation video game consoles
- The Giants’ 2nd Super Bowl victory over Tom Brady and the Patriots
- Kevin O’Connell was on the San Diego Chargers’ roster
- 2 months after Lebron James won his first NBA Championship at 27 years old
- J.J. McCarthy was 9 years old
S Josh Metellus – 83 OVR
Madden NFL 25 End-of-Season Rating: 83 OVR
Josh Metellus did jump 6 rating points from a 77 OVR to an 83 OVR over the course of Madden NFL 25’s roster updates last season; however, Madden doesn’t really have an aspect to their gameplay that allows players with a playstyle like Josh Metellus to really shine.
If you’re going to use him in Madden, you can’t really utilize him the way that the Vikings do in real life, but to be fair to EA Sports, it’s kind of hard to develop a game that way (I guess).
S Theo Jackson – 70 OVR
Madden NFL 25 End-of-Season Rating: 68 OVR
This is another case of a good-faith bump to a player’s overall to better match the contract they received during the offseason. Jackson signed a 3-year/$9.365 million contract to extend his stay in Minneapolis, an unexpected number to retain him at. But obviously, the Vikings like something that they see.
It looks like he’ll be the Cam Bynum replacement after his departure to the Indianapolis Colts earlier this offseason, and the good thing about a low Madden rating is that there is plenty of room to make it much better.
