The value of a cornerback that can go toe-to-toe with the NFL’s best is invaluable. It’s easy to look at numbers like interceptions or passes defended and think this is what a great corner can do. But inMadden NFL 23, veterans know that an elite cornerback contributes to sacks and tackles as well.
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The longer that a receiver is covered, the longer the offense has to hold onto the ball, creating more pressure and sacks. Plus, if they can shut down an opponent, this means the safeties and linebackers inMadden NFL 23are free to blitz without worry.
Updated onFebruary 25th, 2023 by Hodey Johns:The regular season, playoffs, and Super Bowl have concluded. With that all in the books, gamers will be bracing for a long off-season. Ratings adjusters have been working overtime, week-to-week, shifting players based on their performance in the previous weeks. Now, with the last performance in the books, players can pick up and drop players knowing what their stats will be. The ratings adjusters do, sometimes, inexplicably make small changes to player statistics during the offseason. However, this list will likely remain intact and the player statistics won’t change substantially enough to merit a significant alteration.
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Rookie Sauce Gardner comes with an incredible story. As a rookie, he made the Pro Bowl, led the league in passes deflected, and earned the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. He started out at a lowly 78 OVR. He’s now in the top ten list.
The Jets were considered to be in the middle of a ramping-up process after a rebuild. Because of Gardner’s accelerated maturity, the team has decided to flip the switch and enter win-now mode. Experience is going to make New York’s opponents even more terrified of what he can become.
10Denzel Ward - 89 OVR
The Cleveland Browns went into 2021 with betters expecting them to win the Super Bowl. Not only didn’t that happen, but the team failed to even be average. There are a lot of players and coaches to blame for the failure but nobody can blame Denzel Ward.
Ward was a superior lockdown defender and returned an interception 99 yards for a touchdown at one point in 2021. In 2022, he followed that up by scoring two defensive touchdowns. Whencomparing last year’s game to this year’sWard is down two points on his OVR, but this is likely more due to the team’s mediocrity than his own. Any team would be glad to have Ward.
9Stephon Gilmore - 90 OVR
It’s surprising that teams aren’t holding onto Stephon Gilmore for longer. Despite Pro Bowls in five of the last seven years, leading the league in picks and deflected passes, winning the Super Bowl, and winning Defensive Player of the Year, Gilmore joined his third team in three years.
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Usually, players this hot get locked up to long-term contracts, but the Indianapolis Colts have happy to see other teams dropping the ball. The Colts had a miserable season and Gilmore missed the Pro Bowl but not due to his own efforts. In fact, the player set a career-high in tackles.
8Patrick Surtain II - 91 OVR
As the Broncos' offense established itself as one of the league’s worst, the defense in 2021 was on the opposite track. Players like Surtain actually saw their OVR increase despite the woes of the team. He made it to the first Pro Bowl in his young career.
Surtain is been demolishing top wideouts and erasing them from the stat columns. If the Broncos were playing better, Suratin would probably be in the top five on this list. Even so, Denver is happy to have somebody on the team dedicated to improvement.
7Marshon Lattimore - 91 OVR
Marshon Lattimore came onto the scene in 2017 and immediately became a superior defender for the New Orleans Saints. In his rookie year, Lattimore was named Defensive Rookie of the Year and made the Pro Bowl.
This wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan, Lattimore is four-time Pro Bowler. An injury crushed well over half of his season and the Saints suffered badly without him there. However, he did look great during his time on the field, regardless of how much his teammates were struggling.
