The Madden 23 cycle is less than 2 days away and every team has high hopes of competing for a Super Bowl title. The optimism is what makes PML great, especially for long shots like Arod, Cammy, Nef, and Vet. Can any of these teams defy the odds and enter the prestigious group of PML Super Bowl winners?
Every team hopes to put themselves in a position to not only compete, but hold their spot in the Premier Madden League. What is a teams realistic ceiling in season 1? How good can each team be with their current roster, user, and divisional foes? Or how badly can things fall apart?
Lets dive into the NFC East
Cowboys: Jefe
Giants: Cookie
Commanders: Wimmy
Eagles: Wumbo
Cowboys
Ceiling: 12-5, make NFC Super Bowl
Jefe gets gifted with a plug and play team for a second straight cycle. We have already seen what he could do with a ready to go team as he was just a few feet away from taking down Mole for the M22 season 1 Super Bowl. Here is the thing, the ceiling will not be as generous in seasons 2-5. In an ultra-competitive NFC conference, Jefe has a leg up on the competition in regards to opening day rosters. With users such as Spdot, Kmac, and Cookie in the conference, the truth is, those rosters are not ready and will be very user dependent. This is where the Cowboys and Jefe become the ultimate opportunist and compete before the aforementioned rosters are built up and kicked into full throttle.
Floor: 9-8, miss playoffs
The Cowboys struggle to keep up a very difficult schedule. They play competitive football throughout the season but fall short to in a barrage of games vs top users in the NFC East, NFC North, AFC South (yikes!). The team is stuck in CFM purgatory as the cap space is limited, the team ages and the users around them grow and improve their rosters. The Super Bowl window for the Cowboys closes season 1 and Jefe is left competing for wildcard positions.
Giants
Ceiling: 11-5, Make playoffs
Cook using his hometown team and takes advantage of his knowledge of the player personnel. Stuck between a rebuild and staying competitive ultimately shifts towards the competitive side as the Giants win games early and make a run at the division crown. Keyvon Thibodeaux wins rookie of the year, dominates at the line of scrimmage, goes on the become a superstar and becomes one of the most dominating players this cycle. This is all dependent on what Cook decides to do with the veterans on the roster. Many positions are filled with guys who have aged out of potential development. Should be an interesting team to watch this season as it could go either way.
Floor: 7-10, miss playoffs
I never want to count Cook out, but this roster needs a lot of work. Historically, Cook understands that and while trying to stay competitive, the emphasis is on developing players, identifying the keepers, and paving the path for season 3-5 Super Bowl runs. As I mentioned, there are a lot of positions where Cook may decide to start a younger player for development, rather than play the veterans that give him a better chance to keep up on the field with a difficult schedule. Giants play for the off-season and do a complete overhaul of the roster looking ahead at the rest of the cycle.
Commanders
Ceiling: 11-6, Playoff win
Wimmy is a top user who tends to get lost in the shuffle of “top PML users”. He failed to make noise last cycle with the Titans and many have written him off as a potential Super Bowl contender. The Commanders boast one of the best young defenses in PML and I am confident Wimmy will scheme up ways to utilize that to his advantage and compete for the NFC East title this season. Teams will have fits trying to keep up with the 94 speed of both McLaurin and Samuel. I like the roster for Wimmy, especially the defense, but I don’t think its ready to move beyond a playoff win vs some of the best users in the league.
Floor: 8-9, miss playoffs
I’ve emphasized it already during this divisional write up, this is a h*** schedule this season. The Commanders are very bad position at quarterback and I think Wimmy goes with Sam Howell (67ovr / 93thpw) season 1 over Carson Wentz. Running back is not so clear either as Wimmy may decide to start another rookie in Bijan Robinson. This may be a year of development for the Commanders and as I mentioned with Jefe, the window of opportunity closes a bit more each season as some of the top players will have those low-end rosters built up as we progress through the cycle.
Eagles
Ceiling: 3-13, miss playoffs
This is not a knock or shot at Wumbo, I’m happy to see his progression and the fact he secured a team this season, but I don’t think it is the right situation for him (see M22/Arod, M23/Nef). I personally lived it last cycle. Wumbo takes his hometown favorite team and has a little fun with them wins a few games while adding subscribers to his channel playing a bunch of professional gamers.
Floor: 1-15, miss playoffs
I went through the Eagles schedule 2 or 3 times, and it is difficult to find wins. Between the competition within the division, and the h*** schedule, I just don’t know. Check this out: Kmac, Wimmy 2x, CEO, DLLoyd, Hypemike, Jefe 2x, Problem, Bubba, KingMike, Datboi, Cookie 2x, and Spdot. Eagles will be heavy underdogs for almost every game this season besides 1 or 2. It will be a long season in Philly.
