Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs boycotting Madden 23 after ratings

After the Lions secondary was rated poorly in Madden 23, cornerback Jerry Jacobs feels disrespected enough to go to a bit of an extreme.

As the player ratings for the Madden 23 video game have rolled out this week, players of this generation take it personally as a snub if they think they were rated poorly. The ratings for defensive backs and defensive lineman came out on Thursday, and naturally the Detroit Lions did not rate very well in general.

When you had a bad defense the previous year, and have had a bad defense for a few years, low Madden ratings should be expected.

But don’t tell that to cornerback Jerry Jacobs.

Five Lions’ defensive backs–Mike Hughes (78), DeShon Elliott (78), Amani Oruwariye (77), Tracy Walker (77)and Jeff Okudah (73) even got a Madden rating above 70, and that free agent additions Hughes and Elliott lead the way is broadly telling.

Among Lions cornerbacks Ifeatu Melifonwu got a 68 rating, while Jacobs tied with AJ Parker at 66. Here’s how the entire position group rated overall.

Mike Hughes 78
Amani Oruwariye 77
Jeff Okudah 73
Ifeatu Melifonwu 68
AJ Parker 66
Jerry Jacobs 66
Chase Lucas 65
Mark Gilbert 61
Bobby Price 60
Saivion Smith 59

Jacobs tweeted about Oruwariye getting a 77, and that he himself couldn’t even get a 70 after a solid rookie season last year before he suffered a torn ACL.

Jerry Jacobs will boycott Madden 23 after low Lions’ secondary ratings

Then, Jacobs drew his line in the video game sand on Twitter. He will be boycotting the game this year.

https://twitter.com/_luhjerry/status/1550165926523305984?s=20&t=CeOfAkFgdjgDZaTliUmOlA

Whatever it takes to find motivation, players will tap into it–whether it makes a lot of sense or not.

Giving so much mental space to Madden ratings is definitely trivial, but so many young NFL players grew up playing the game and many still play it. So they pay attention and take note when the annual player ratings come out, as networks like ESPN devote segments to it.