The biggest competition for Madden NFL is coming from within the house. EA Sports’ addition of EA Sports College Football has completely changed how we view the flagship NFL franchise, and truthfully last year was a little bit of a letdown. That wasn’t entirely the fault of Madden, which had to contend against a new, shiny football game — but after experiencing he passion, love, and care put into CFB 25 it left the NFL game a little lacking.
That all changes in Madden NFL 26, which has harnessed some of the best elements of EA Sports College Football 26, while adding its own signature features to leave us with the best, most complete, and most fun Madden in years. If you’ve been waiting for significant improvements to shell out your hard-earned money, well, this one is it.
Presentation rules supreme
One of the most lacking areas in recent Madden game has been a woeful lack of presentation and individuality to differentiate between teams. Outside of roster and playbook, teams in the past all largely felt the same. Sure, you’re running some different plays, and the players felt different — but the presentation from top to bottom was just lacking. That has been completely turned on its head in Madden NFL 26. Every team has its own unique pregame presentations, true to how teams actually play the game. Billy Buffalo runs onto the field and dances before the players run out in Buffalo. A divisional game in Minneapolis is rich with “SKOL” chants leading up to kickoff. Greg Olsen takes to the field in a suit in Charlotte to hit the Panthers “Keep Pounding” drum. This attention to detail has clearly taken a welcome page out of EA Sports College Football’s book, but that’s not all.
One of the biggest differences that just adds to the whole feel of the game is the addition of unique, true-to-life jumbotron presentations during the game. No longer will replay boards have the same canned graphics. Now every team has its unique tram phrases, chants, mottos, and all the moments that makes it feel real. Just having these in your periphery on every snap makes it feel more like you’re on the field in an actual NFL game, and it’s an example of a small change having a big impact on the feel of it all.
Overhauling the broadcast booth is a part of that as well. Madden returns with its multiple team presentation, except this year there are clear differences in presentation between a Sunday 1 p.m. game, and a primetime national game when everything is on the line. Different commentators are in the booth, unique score bugs, bespoke presentation elements, and heightened atmosphere make primetime games feel like something different and special.
Animation overhaul
Madden NFL 26 feels very different in how it plays, and that’s a good thing. It’s not that it was inherently bad a year ago, but we were still trapped in too many canned animations that played out, taking agency away from the player. This year EA Sports has shifted to having shorter, more branching animations that essentially allow every play to unfold as if it was a complex flowchart, rather than simply moving from point A to point B.
A prime example of this is the curl route. A go-to, effective route that has been a staple of Madden forever. In the past the canned animation of the curl played out two ways:
- The player would begin their curl, enter a catch animation, and then you could regain control to pick up YAC.
- You would throw before the curl was complete, which often ended up making the ball hit the receiver’s back, or enter a weird animation where they would catch it like a fly route.
I was blown away when throwing a curl at the 15-yard line to see the receiver glance back at the QB before making their curl, see the ball was coming, shorten up their route, catch the ball, and immediately look over their shoulder for a defender before turning upfield. It shook the defender, and resulted in a touchdown — because it’s how an NFL receiver would actually run that route. This immediately opened up the playbook to concepts I’d written off, because they would just never work with the slow, plodding animation structure of past games.
In totality Madden NFL 26 is a lot quicker and more responsive than in the past. If you casually watch clips it will definitely look more like a video game and less like a true broadcast, but those are minor quibbles when the game plays, and feels as good as it does. This is a substantially faster football game than CFB 26, which by design evokes the feeling that these are pro players, who are masters of their craft, and have the ability to process plays quicker.
Passing the ball hasn’t felt this good in a long time
There have been significant changes to the passing game in Madden NFL 26, and it’s here I could see some frustration from long-time players, because my goodness has passing changed. This year’s iteration of Madden is all about understanding how football works, when a quarterback should throw the ball in their drop, and rewarding you for doing so.
The amount of wild scrambling, cross-body darts is almost non existent now. Heck, if you call a play with a natural five-step drop and throw the ball immediately in your backpedal there’s a very good chance the ball will fall short, or wildly sail over the head of a receiver and into the hands of a safety.
On the flip side, if you understand routes, a QB’s drop, and when to throw with anticipation, well, now you’re slinging the ball all over the place and feeling like Tom Brady. There have been very few times in the game where I felt like I was “screwed” by the game. Every interception I threw, each bad incompletion was because I rushed something, misread a defense, or busted a play.
This skill-based approach to passing from a football knowledge perspective means you can achieve really good things with even QBs locked in the mid-70s ratings wise. It’s not like you’re going to be dancing through defenses like Lamar Jackson with Caleb Williams, but you can absolutely perform. The biggest difference between a middling QB and a true superstar is the X-Factor abilities. If you haven’t played Madden in recent years, this is a equivalent of gaining NBA Jam abilities in a football game — albeit with a lot more restraint.
For example, Lamar Jackson has the ability “Truzz.” If you complete five carries with him for positive yardage he gains this ability, which means he’ll never fumble the ball on scrambles and designed runs. This superstar ability is turned off if he’s tackled one time for a loss, at which time he needs to run five times for positive yardage again. Both Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes have the ability “Bazooka,” which vastly improves their arm strength and accuracy on deep passes, making it easier to throw over the top for huge plays. However, you need to throw a 30+ yard pass to unlock this, and a single pass turns it back off.
This extends to almost every skill position, and it’s so much fun to have these small, focused minigames inside the game which can transform top NFL players into the true game breakers we see on Sunday.
Franchise mode gets the facelift we’ve waited for
In past iterations of Madden we’d seen small, incremental upgrades to franchise mode, but overall it was underwhelming. That changes in Madden NFL 26, which makes the experience deeper, more varied, and more interesting than ever before.
Dozens of improvements have been made to the mode, and it’s absolutely fantastic. Once again taking the role of a real, or created coach — there are now very meaningful differences to franchise mode that apply when you’re a high-level, experienced coach vs. a first year signal caller. It begins from the play calling screen. Hardcore Madden played already have their stable of go-to plays and preferred formations, but a lot of casual players prefer to just run the “Coach’s Suggestion.” In the past there’s been little rhyme or reason to what the “Coach’s Suggestion” actually does, but in Madden NFL 26 the play given in a suggestion will be based off the skill of the coach giving you the play. Andy Reid’s staff will give you an ideal play for the down and distance, as well as targeting struggling defenders with key players. Ben Johnson will dial up creative players with maximal pre-snap movement. A young coach might offer something that doesn’t quite make sense, like a run up the gut on 3rd-and-6. Along with these plays is a justification from the coach on why they think the play might work, and a percentage from the analytics team on the estimate success rate. It’s just another layer that makes things feel more realistic.
In addition there’s a lot more to do before the game in the form of “playsheets.” These are specifically designed packages from the coaching staff designed to target specific opponents. Play against a defense without solid linebackers and the playsheet might add more screen passes into the mix, bad DBs and the Average Depth of Target will be extended with deeper passing. This is paired with specific single-game boosts to specific player stats like stiff arms, or wrap tackling and it allows for each game to feel more like the chess match it is. There’s a specific joy that comes from choosing the correct playsheet and boosts to take into a game, then see those manifest in on-field success.
A big upgrade brought over from CFB is “wear-and-tear.” Players of Road To Glory will know this system well, as it dictates how well a player can keep performing during a grueling football season. That’s been added to Madden NFL 26, and it really changes how you scheme a game. The risk of having a bad offensive line or throwing too many hospital passes isn’t simply a one-off injury, but mounting wear-and-tear on a player. Call too many risky plays early in the season and you’ll pay for it later, with key players losing stats when the games matter the most due to the miles on their body. There’s a very real justification for simply doing enough to win against bad opponents, and understanding when it’s time to push the tempo in games that matter.
Scouting has seen improvements as well, with prospects now having ideal “team fits” assigned to them by scouts. This deepens how you find players, with four and five star scouting staffs being able to correctly identify not just the best players in the draft, but late round players you should target because they fit your scheme well. It’s much closer to how team approach the draft, and it’s another welcome improvement.
Madden NFL 26 is special
There are always things to nitpick when it comes to sports games, but for the first time in a long time Madden delivers. This is a meaningful update that simply feels better than past iterations, with overhauls to game play, presentation, and franchise that make the whole package feel more special.
The animations might not look as crisp, and at times plays feels like they move a little too fast, but this is an acceptable trade off for a game that’s this fun to play. It’s unequivocally worth the purchase this year, which is something you can’t always say about yearly sports titles. This is a knock-out package that makes the NFL feel special the same way EA Sports College Football did for the NCAA.
They really, actually did it.
