After hitting the sports video gaming market in late August, the new edition of the fan-favorite Madden NFL video game, Madden 22 is already giving fans plenty to talk about both on the positive and negative side. Now, while we could get into it and truly dissect all of the positive and negatives that the game has to offer, it would take us as much time as it takes somebody to come up with the best lineup of NFL picks against the spread and honestly, who has time for that when they could be playing Madden?
Today, let’s focus on one game mode that has had Madden fans going from enjoyment to misplaced hope, all the way to flat-out rage because of the way it has been managed by the game’s producers. Yes, we’re talking about the Madden “Franchise Mode”. In what could be considered a promising move by EA Sports, the producers of the game, this feature has finally gone through some much-needed fixes and upgrades, and while it’s not quite there yet to what gaming fans want, we’ll have to make do with what we have right now. With all this said, here are our picks for the best teams to play within Madden 22’s “Franchise Mode” feature.
New York Jets
If apart from being a gaming fan you’re also an NFL fan, you must be reading this and thinking “wait, that’s a joke, right?”. Well, it’s not a joke, the New York Jets are one of the best teams you can pick to play your franchise mode with. Why? When playing in franchise mode, you’re not only the head coach, but you’re also the general manager of the team and in this year’s edition of Madden, you have a say over all of your coaching staff as well as player personnel people, so even when taking a team that feels like such a risk like the Jets, if you have good management skills, you could be looking at a great franchise to build on and ride with.
With the Jets, you have to take the positives over the negatives if you want to succeed. First positive, your rookie QB Zach Wilson. While he might not be the highest-rated rookie QB in the game, that honor going to Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Wilson’s upside and potential continue to rise day in and day out. Add to that the fact that you’ll have some solid options at WR like Corey Davis and Jamison Crowder as well as rookie Elijah Moore, who’s another player with an upside and stock rising faster and faster, you could have some very good players to play with and also use as trading pieces to build up even stronger.
On defense, you’ll be pretty much stacked with studs like Quinnen Williams, Marcus Maye, and Mekhi Becton. If you take all of that and add to it the fact that the Jets are loaded in cap space for 2022, when the time comes for your GM moves to be put to the test, you’ll have enough money to go around and build a superior squad.
Green Bay Packers
Now, let’s say you want a team with which you can win right away but don’t want to go the easiest way by picking the Buccaneers or the Chiefs, then the Green Bay Packers are the best option on the table. For one, you’ll have Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams running your offense alongside Aaron Jones, all three players having ratings of over 90 in the game, with Adams being a member of the coveted “99 Club”. Add to that a defensive line that while young at heart, you know will pay big dividends for you in the long run, then you could easily be looking at the best team to pick if winning now is your goal.
Now, just because Green Bay is so stacked, it doesn’t mean you can’t put your managerial ideas to the test here. With Green Bay, you have both a team to win right now and also a squad to build on for a dynasty-style run in the game. Green Bay might not be able to keep Aaron Rodgers in real life after the end of this season, but in Madden, this is your team and you do with it whatever you want it to do.
Carolina Panthers
So we gave you a bottom team to build on and truly put your managerial skills in play with the Jets. We then gave you a win-now team with the Green Bay Packers. For our last pick, we’re giving you an intriguing pick, the Carolina Panthers. With Carolina you can go two ways, either work with exploiting what you have, like RB Christian McCaffrey and WR’s Robbi Anderson and DJ Moore, who could all end up benefiting greatly if your coaching prowesses enable you to get the best out of new Panthers QB Sam Darnold, or go into a full rebuild mode, trade McCaffrey for a boatload of picks and players and work from there.
While we won’t tell you what choice is best, just know that with Carolina you are getting a very good and young core of players to work with and develop. This is the kind of team with which you can put all of your front office and coaching ways to work, trying to make a bad to average team become good. Carolina is a fun pick, an intriguing one too, and one that you should look into if you want to see if your football knowledge is up to par to come up with a strong team for the future.
