Per Madden, Colin Kaepernick Still a Better QB than Kirk Cousins

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Aug 19, 2021
Colin Kaepernick
Free agent QB Colin Kaepernick is still waiting to learn if he'll play a seventh NFL season in 2017. XXX IMG_2017_08_24_COLIN_KAE_1_1_MIJDETDB.JPG

When Madden ratings debuted for EA’s latest installment in the franchise last month, the Los Angeles Chargers Twitter rejoiced as Keenan Allen, the team’s keynote wide receiver, ranked higher than Minnesota Vikings pass-catcher, Justin Jefferson.

The discrepancy ignited online fun because – why on Earth would an NFL franchise use Madden scores as a sufficient tool for supremacy? Nobody knows, but the Chargers did it anyway. The fracas lasted for a few days between fans of the Chargers and Vikings, reopening scabs from the two entities feuding over the Offensive Rookie of the Year race in 2020. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert topped the other Justin [Jefferson] for 2020 Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

Well, now a silly deed can unite Chargers and Vikings alike.

Evidently, Madden is at it again – this time grading Colin Kaepernick higher than Kirk Cousins and Justin Herbert.

This one is extremely bizarre. While Kaepernick was phenomenal in his heyday – he was a killer of the Green Bay Packers – the man has not played NFL football since 2016. His career was unceremoniously ended by his national anthem protest. During the singing of the song, Kaepernick would fall to a knee, protesting police brutality of African-Americans. Somehow, that act of peaceful protest was weaponized by folks to assert that Kaepernick was anti-military. There is a school of thought that suggests the national anthem belongs to the military, so kneeling to protest during the song’s extolment was perceived as disrespectful – even though Kaepernick explained on multiple occasions his demonstration was borne out of police brutality, not anti-military misgivings.

Nevertheless, Kaepernick has been a non-factor to on-the-field football for half of a decade. But the makers of Madden still uplift Kaepernick as a better quarterback now than Cousins and Herbert.

Kaepernick is a free agent in the game, likely because he hasn’t expressly retired. And his “81” rating is reflective of the man at the peak of his powers. That’s really the only way to rationalize his supremacy to Cousins and Herbert – that is, the game decided not to slide his score down to the 70s-range as it does for most players who are idle.

Ironically, Cousins and Kaepernick are the same age, 33. So, his exclusion from the NFL isn’t based on age. Indeed, his performance tumbled in 2016 but not enough to warrant banishment from the league.

At least once per season, Kaepernick is spitballed to possibly sign on with a team as QB2 or QB3. No team ever pulls the trigger, though. His window of opportunity for an NFL reunion has likely passed – for better or worse.

But, hey, you use his skill set on Madden 22 and have more luck than you would with Cousins or Herbert.

Don’t tell the Chargers social media manager about this.