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Before I go trade in my copy of Madden 16 for a cool $12 (it's probably gone down again as you read this), I thought we'd take a look at the San Francisco 49ers' rankings in Madden 16 and where they ended up. Just for clarification, the rankings here are the ones that are from Electronic Arts' auto updater and do not take into account the free agency activity or lack thereof of San Francisco. Which means Zane Beadles, the only "noteworthy" addition to the team wasn't a factor in this.
The 49ers opened up the season in Madden 16 with a 78 rating. The release of the 53-man roster along with other transactions throughout the season had the 49ers ranked at 70 to close things out, sharing the second to last spot with the Cleveland Browns. The only team worse than those two is the San Diego Chargers who are at 69. In front of the 49ers at a ranking of 71 are the New York Giants and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If Madden's cheap A.I. is any indication, that means playing as the San Francisco 49ers would now be like playing a game of Battletoads.
Obviously, a lot of acquisitions will improve that ranking, but the 49ers have nowhere to go but up when looking at this. In just about every category with starters, they are on the bottom end of the league. Quarterback for instance, has a ranking of 31st -- just in front of the league-worst St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams (the Rams are still in St. Louis in the game).
The official rankings for the next season won't be released until after Madden 17's marketing circus begins, which is around late July to tell us how mundane new and improved Madden will be. Typically, most of the rankings are inflated to start the season and bottom out towards the end like what happened here While I was checking out what we were left with after the season I was left wondering where the 49ers would be with their ranking.
I'm guessing the 49ers will be around high seventies to start the season. I'm thinking 77 unless their draft is awful. There's less optimism this year than last year since it's even more clear the team will be rebuilding. The draft notwithstanding, where do you see the 49ers ending up in rankings, and who do you see just above and below them?