Posted July 28th at 12:00pm.

Attacking through the air is all the rage in the NFL. The skill level of today’s wide receivers makes that easy to achieve. OK, so nothing in the NFL is easy. Not even the tablets are easy, just ask Bill Belichick. Fortunately, turning on your console to play Madden is a lot easier than getting into the NFL. Here, let’s focus on the best WRs Madden NFL 18 has to offer.





1. Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons When teams draft a wide receiver in the first round, they want that receiver to basically be Julio Jones. Defensive coordinators lose sleep over stopping Julio. His combination of size, speed, and strength are difficult to match. Jones scores a 94 Speed, 98 Catch, has a 91 Juke, and has an 84 on Spin Move and Stiff Arm to boot. Few in the game, ever, have been better than Julio Jones.





2. Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers In terms of Madden ratings, there’s Jones and Brown, and everyone else. There are other great receivers, but these two are the top. Brown falls behind Jones in some of the intangibles, but makes up that ground elsewhere, combining a 98 Agility, 98 Catch, and a 97 Elusiveness. Both his Elusiveness score and Ball Carrier Vision (98) are the highest among WRs. Let’s throw in a 97 Juke, 88 Spin, and 93 Kick Return just for fun.





3. A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals It should be a testament to how good WRs are in the NFL that somebody as talented as A.J. Green is 3. Only slightly slower than the two guys rated above him, Green carries a 91 Speed, with a 94 Agility, and 97 Jump. Green is big too, standing at 6”4’. At this point, you can just lob it up to Green, ignore coverage completely, and still have some success.





4. Odell Beckham Jr., New York Giants As a rookie in 2014, OBJ became the darling of every sports highlight reel made since that point. It’s clear the Madden ratings gods haven’t forgotten and have blessed OBJ with a 99 Spectacular Catch rating. He also matches Julio’s speed and nearly matches Brown’s Agility. He may not be as big as the other guys on this list, but he doesn’t need to be. Even his Kick Return is decent for a desperate times scenario.





5. Dez Bryant, Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys’ x-factor rounds out the top 5. He’s the slowest here, but still very effective with 89 Speed with solid scores down the board. Worth noting is Dez’s 98 Jump, highest in the WR class. This is paired with a 97 in both Spectacular Catch and Catch in Traffic. Just like in the NFL, Bryant is a reliable target even when covered. Honorable Mentions The depth at WR is just crazy. Case in point, DeAndre Hopkins (91), Jordy Nelson (91), Mike Evans (90), and Larry Fitzgerald (90) make up the rest of the 90 OVR group. Heck, you have to go 62 players deep into the WR list before you find one below 80 OVR. Point is, there’s some great talent here. I did want to also single out Brandon Marshall. Marshall scores an 85 OVR with solid ratings throughout. But he’s also paired with OBJ now. Either one of these guys are reliable targets on their own. Playing H2H against the New York Giants won’t be fun. -Daniel Williams