To me, the Madden ratings for wide receivers are very similar to Batman. You always know who Batman is going to be. It's Bruce Wayne. But the question remains, who is going to be No. 2? Who is going to be Robin? It could be Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damien Wayne, etc.
And before you even mention it, I know Dick Grayson spent some time as Batman. Do you think I'm some kind of rube? Just roll with this analogy. Because in it, Calvin Johnson is Batman. We know that. I mean, there is no scenario or argument for somebody to be ahead of Megatron.
Oh wait, it just dawned on me that I said Megatron is Batman. This whole thing is taking a weird turn. So let's just get to it. But first (as Julie Chen always says right before she reveals the votes for the houseguests on "Big Brother," so annoying), who do you think is No. 2? Just fathom a guess. Actually, it's not terrible and probably somebody you would figure could take that No. 2 role.
Calvin Johnson is a 99 OVR. We all know that. The No. 2 receiver is Brandon Marshall. I'm cool with that. Marshall is a 96 OVR. The big category that pushed Marshall to the Robin position was his 99 CIT -- which is the best in the game. (And that stands for catch in traffic, just in case you're not a gamer.)
But before we go on (I'm learning, Julie!) take a wild guess at who is going to rank at No. 3. Seriously, you're not going to guess it. Maybe if you cheat and jump down another paragraph or so, you will stumble upon it. But it's not going to be who you think it's going to be.
Nope, not Demaryius Thomas. Good guess.
Nope, not Jordy Nelson. Good guess.
Nope, not Julio Jones. Good guess.
The No. 3 receiver in the Madden ratings (FOR THIS SEASON) is Dre Johnson. Yes, Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans. He's a 95 OVR. Ratings czar Donny Moore, can you please try to explain this?
"Andre Johnson might be slowing down a bit, but is still a huge threat in 'Madden NFL 15' with 98 Awareness/96 Catch/94 Route Running/98 Catch in Traffic."
Yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Johnson hasn't scored a touchdown in 16 of his last 18 games, even though he was targeted a ton (181 times last season alone). He doesn't score touchdowns. And it's been this way for a long time. I mean, if you're going to base Johnson's rating on a lifetime achievement basis, why not have Larry Fitzgerald at 100 OVR?
But yeah, there you go. Andre Johnson is your third highest-rated receiver in Madden NFL 15. In case you're curious, A.J. Green 95 OVR and Dez Bryant 94 OVR round out the top five. No real dissention here. I actually would have moved Green to third and Bryant fourth with DT as the fifth-ranked receiver. But that's just me. I mean, I wouldn't have cast Ben Affleck as Batman but that's a whole other Oprah.
-- Follow Adam on Twitter @adamrank
