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Antonio Gandy-Golden gets first Madden 21 rating among Redskins rookies

By Jacob Camenker

MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Wide Receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden #11 from Liberty of the North Team warms up before the start of the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The Noth Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Wide Receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden #11 from Liberty of the North Team warms up before the start of the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The Noth Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images) /
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Antonio Gandy-Golden officially has his first Madden 21 rating of the 2020 NFL season.

It’s early July and training camp is about two and a half weeks away. So you know what that means.

It’s time for Madden 21 to start leaking its ratings.

These ratings don’t matter at all. I’m the first to admit that. But the fact of the matter is that it is interesting to see exactly how the video game rates each player across the league. And it’s particularly interesting to see their take on certain rookies. Because as we’ve seen in the past, they can either be very right… or very wrong.

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Take Terry McLaurin‘s rating last year as an example. The Redskins’ third-round pick was given a grade of 70 in the game’s preliminary ratings release. McLaurin played significantly better than that as a rookie and emerged as one of the better young receivers in the NFL. He should be graded significantly higher in Madden 2021 and should crack an 80 rating.

Antonio Gandy-Golden will be the next Redskins receiver that hopes his rating vastly underestimates his overall talent. In the first Madden 21 ratings release, Gandy-Golden was rated as the 16th-best rookie receiver overall with a mark of 69. That’s not surprising given that Gandy-Golden was a late fourth-round pick and Madden ratings tend not to value Day 3 picks as much. But Gandy-Golden has the skill set needed to make an impact at the next level.

The one thing holding back Gandy-Golden, at least compared to other receivers in the game, is his speed. He has an 86 in that category which is tied for the lowest among the top-20 rookie receivers in the game. That lacking speed does line up with what Gandy-Golden showed on tape, so the rating is sensible.

But Madden tends to overvalue speed and undervalue contested catch ability. Gandy-Golden has plenty of the latter and should have a great chance to emerge as a possession-type receiver if he can improve his route running and use his frame to effectively box out defensive backs.

Gandy-Golden could also become a red-zone threat because of his 6-4 frame and he should have a chance to catch some touchdowns as a rookie. He’ll have to beat out Kelvin Harmon for a red-zone role, but the team doesn’t have a ton of tight end talent so they may be more apt to use Gandy-Golden in four-receiver sets near the end zone.

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It will be interesting to see how Gandy-Golden can fare on contested catches in the game. But either way in real life, there is a role for him to carve out in the Redskins’ receiving corps. The rookie will look to start winning that job when training camp opens on July 28. And the coaching staff will hope that, like McLaurin, his play vastly exceeds the numerical rating that the game has placed on him.

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