Getty Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Khalen Saunders' Madden 23 reaction will make you cry, in a good way.
In case you missed it, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Willie Gay Jr. called out Madden 23 for giving him a lousy rating in the new edition of the popular video game franchise.
Gay definitely had a point, but defensive teammate Khalen Saunders has way more reason to be upset. Judging by his initial reaction, the fourth-year defensive tackle wasn’t expecting much. “If willie G a [69] I don’t even wanna look on madden to see what I am,” Saunders voiced with a laughing emoji, “I’m running with the ‘chiefs suck’ narrative this whole year… I love the hate.”
Lmao damn if willie G a 68 i don’t even wanna look on madden to see what i am😂
I’m running with the “chiefs suck” narrative this whole year
I love the hate
And yet, he still went home disappointed after some major disrespect.
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Saunders Gets Snubbed! — Almost
Eventually, Saunders did decide to search himself on the Madden 23 player ratings launch and was told: “NO PLAYER FOUND.”
“LMAOOOOOO THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE!” He tweeted again. “I might as well be a literal pile of [poop].”
The response was certainly hilarious, although one fan was nice enough to inform Saunders that he didn’t actually get snubbed from Madden 23 — at least not yet. You see, defensive tackle ratings are set to drop on July 21 and have yet to be released.
“Check again in a couple of days,” said the fan after sharing a screenshot of the DT info. Others chimed in as well, including some that joked this was “tackling fuel.”
As a former third-round pick with seven appearances in 2021, Saunders is a lock to be in the game. His rating is another question altogether, with a slim eight tackles and zero sacks a season ago.
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RB & Safety Ratings Released
If you were wondering which Chiefs players found out their Madden value today, July 20 revealed the running backs and safeties.
The headliners in this department were Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Justin Reid, Ronald Jones II and rookie Bryan Cook. “CEH” suffered the largest regression of the group, falling from 84 to 79. “RoJo” wasn’t far off that mark at 77.
As for the safeties, Reid led the way with an 82 — two points up from last year — and Juan Thornhill followed him with a 77. The first-year talent was next at 70, with Deon Bush at 65 along with rookie Nazeeh Johnson.
Speaking of draft picks, Isiah Pacheco was given a rating of 64 and undrafted prospects Jerrion Ealy and Tayon Fleet-Davis were not included. Jerick McKinnon and Derrick Gore were the final backs in the game, at 75 and 69 in that order.
Chiefs Receiving Corps Takes a Virtual Hit
In the real world, people are starting to feel some excitement when it comes to the Chiefs 2022 receiving corps but Madden 23 is taking the cautious approach.
The only 80 or higher rating was JuJu Smith-Schuster who hit the number on the dot. From there, the KC receivers had the following grades:
- Mecole Hardman, 79.
- Marquez Valdes-Scantling, 76.
- Josh Gordon, 74.
- Skyy Moore, 72.
- Justyn Ross, 69.
- Corey Coleman, 68.
- Gary Jennings, 68.
- Justin Watson, 67.
- Cornell Powell, 67.
- Daurice Fountain, 67.
As always, Kansas City will have to work at proving Madden wrong in 2022. The gaming system often patches its rosters with updates as the season goes on, and there should be plenty of Chiefs players looking to raise their overall scores by surprising outside observers on the field.