Madden NFL 23: LA Rams TE Tyler Higbee better than 49ers TE George Kittle

The LA Rams may not get all the breaks, but I gotta admit that TE Tyler Higbee got one.  Not by the NFL, mind you, but by the programmers at EA Sports Madden NFL 23.  Yes, that’s right. Madden NFL 23.

With each new season along comes a new upgraded EA Sports Madden Football. And with each new iteration of the popular football simulation game, there is an entire array of pre-programmed data points that lend some realistic experiences for players who purchase the game.

Those data points vary based on the measured skillsets needed to perform well at any given NFL position. Okay, English, please?

Well, perhaps it’s just better for me to show you than to tell you. The Madden NFL 23 has leaked their ratings of NFL tight ends. Guess where LA Rams TE Tyler Higbee rates at catching?  Ninth overall. Guess where San Francisco 49ers TE George Kittle rates at catching?  Tenth overall.  That is, Madden NFL 23 has programmed nine NFL tight ends to be better at the position than 49ers TE George Kittle.

That seems, overly optimistic. But it’s worse yet for the 49ers fans who are now forced to pose the question to the programmers of EA Sports: Why is Kittle rated so relatively low compared to his peers?

Perception is becoming the new hotbed of professional athlete debate. With more and more attention being paid to social media and fantasy football, and those areas being influenced by the simulation game ratings, discussions over a player’s virtual football game rating are no longer groundbreaking debates. It’s now par for the course in a world that has had to rely upon virtual experiences for nearly two years.

Even now, as the world scrapes and claws to return to a ‘normal’ state, each of us must not confront the inconsistencies between our real world and the virtual reality that has surrounded us for two years.

Real life or virtual simulation, it’s a very hard sell to make me believe that 49ers tight end George Kittle is less capable in the NFL than nine other players at catching the football at the TE position. I’d be hard-pressed to note five tight ends who are better at catching the football than him.  That’s not fear. That’s not homerism.

That’s simply reality.