Posted August 6th at 10:00am.

Just like cornerbacks, safeties are tasked with slowing down explosive passing attacks. Safeties can be assigned to cover players, but most have some freedom to read the play and predict where the offense is going. These guys can make deep passes impossible and give receivers nightmares about open-field hits. Let’s get to the top 5. Here are the best safeties of Madden NFL 18.





1. Kam Chancellor, Seattle Seahawks That nightmare comment earlier? 90 percent of those nightmares are about Kam. He excels in zone coverage and is the strongest DB in football. For Madden, he carries a Strength of 82, more than every other safety. Not to mention his colossal Hit Power of 97. So the Madden gods watched Kam play, and they awarded him the best Hit Power of Madden 18.





2. Eric Berry, Kansas City Chiefs Let’s put Madden ratings aside for a second. Eric Berry’s story is one of the best things going in the NFL. He’s not only returned to playing after battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, but he’s one of the bets DBs in the league. Truly remarkable. Ratings-wise, Berry is excellent down the board. He doesn’t excel at hitting as well as Kam, but he’s good in both Man and Zone, and is a DB that has great potential to score when he has the ball, with an 84 Elusiveness, 81 Ball Carrier Vision, 87 Juke, and 83 Spin. He can create a turnover and make the opponent pay for it on a single play.





3. Earl Thomas III, Seattle Seahawks Breaking news, the Seahawks defense is still really good. In the NFL, Thomas is the most crucial cog to Seattle’s defensive machine. In Madden, he’s an excellent defender and is the guy the offense should avoid giving the ball to. In terms of ratings, he’s actually very similar to Berry. Berry has a slight edge in ball carrier moves and Thomas has a slight advantage in zone. It should be no surprise that the Seahawks are dangerous to throw against.





4. Harrison Smith, Minnesota Vikings Smith is another physical safety who excels in zone coverage schemes and hitting people. Among the elite five listed here, Smith’s Strength and Hit Power are only beaten by Kam Chancellor. A nice addition for Smith is a Catch rating of 82.





5. Eric Weddle, Baltimore Ravens Weddle is part of a Ravens secondary that’s quite formidable in Madden. While other teams might attract more attention with their DBs, the Ravens have a few deep players that make exposing zone coverage difficult. In fact, the Ravens are the only other team besides Seattle that has two safeties in the top 10, the other being Tony Jefferson (88 OVR). Weddle has the highest Awareness of the top 5 with 93. Honorable Mentions Madden 18 is loaded at safety. The New England Patriots’ Devin McCourty (92 OVR), New York Giants’ Landon Collins (92 OVR), and the Miami Dolphins’ Reshad Jones (91 OVR) round out the rest of the 90s class. Side note: I’ve been mentioning the Madden gods a few times in these ratings pieces. It’s a little-known fact that the Madden ratings aren’t based on an algorithm or real-life athlete performance. Instead, there is actually a mystical, supernatural process where we toss NFL trading cards into a green-glowing fire pit*. The ratings numbers appear in the smoke formations. Every once in a while, it’ll do something crazy like give an offensive lineman 99 Kick Power, so we correct that afterwards by sacrificing moldy eggplants into the flames, which always sets the ratings right. The nights can get pretty strange at here at EA. *Editor’s Note: Of course this isn’t true – the awesome and tireless Madden game team is behind the ratings. Or are they . . . -Daniel Williams