Predicting Rookie Careers With Madden '09
by Bill Barnwell


Year Team Cmp Att Yrds TDs INT Ovr
2008 BAL 312 506 3332 15 15 79
2009 BAL 295 459 2774 15 18 83
2010 BAL 325 492 3114 16 20 85
2011 BAL 323 484 3181 20 13 85
2012 BAL 341 499 3400 22 15 87
2013 KC 299 474 3372 18 9 88
2014 KC 287 447 3356 17 11 90
2015 KC 293 501 3772 19 12 92
2016 KC 301 552 4119 26 16 92
2017 KC 17 29 163 1 2 92
2018 KC 299 447 3302 19 16 89
2019 KC 73 141 775 7 6 86
2020 KC 18 42 209 2 2 85
2021 KC 1 5 18 0 1 82

It turned out that Joe Flacco had the most successful career of any of these three players, even if his ratings weren't as high at times. Flacco got to start immediately and put up very solid numbers, leading the 2008 Ravens to 10 wins and the AFC North title, picking up the AFC Rookie of the Year trophy in the process. The Ravens struggled in 2009, but made the playoffs in 2011 and 2012, with Flacco making the Pro Bowl both years. He left the team in free agency, moving on to the blue skies of Kansas City, where he'd spend the rest of his career.

Flacco didn't break down till the end of his career, but when he did, it came fast. His best year was 2016, when he won the NFL MVP award for leading a 14-2 Chiefs team to the Super Bowl. He fractured his patella the year afterwards in the first series of his Week 2 game, an injury that appeared to haunt him for the rest of his career. He spent one more year as the starter with uneven results, before he was replaced by a 36-year-old Vince Young, still going strong at a 94 overall rating. Flacco saw playing time from the bench when Young went down, but by 2021, he'd had enough and called it a career.

All in all, Madden seems to predict that Joe Flacco will have the best career of these three players. We'll have to check back in 15 years and see if that was really the case.
Flacco to leave us in 5 YEARS!!!! Ilmao!!!