ESPN

According to Madden NFL 10 designer Donny Moore, the player rating system in the upcoming game is getting overhauled in order to use more of the scale.

"We basically stretched out the ratings," Moore writes in his blog on easports.com. "We want to use more of the numbers so we get a bigger, more noticeable affect in the game."

Moore continues with the following example:

"In Madden NFL 09 all of the WR's Route Running ratings ranged from 62-99. In the current Madden NFL 10 build, WR's now check in from 35-99. To counter this on the defensive side, all CB's in Madden NFL 09 had a Man Coverage rating which ranged from 64-99. Now in Madden NFL 10, CB's Man Coverage range is currently 40-99.

"Every position and every rating has been re-scaled to expand the range of numbers we are dealing with. The Overall Rating for your average NFL player has dropped. Your Joe Average linebacker who was 80 OVR is now dropped down to 70. The players who were before right on the cusp of 90 in a rating category are now down around 85-88&Meaning, there are fewer superstar players out there. Before, where you could maybe get by throwing to your slot WR who had 93 SPD, with 74 ROUTES, and 77 Catching ... now in Madden NFL 10, that guy is going to have like 91 SPD, 60-65 ROUTES and anywhere from 65-70 Catching. Let me tell you, these rating drops make a big difference when that slot rookie WR with 90+ speed now drops every 3rd pass or so, or just simply cannot get open.

"The superstars have not been affected however, this is intentional. Peyton is still 99 OVR, Patrick Willis a 99, Larry Fitz is 99, etc. The elite players at rating categories have not been affected either (JaMarcus Russell still has a 98 Throw Power and Chris Johnson still rated 99 Speed). [Side note: One of my personal goals is to have the actual NFL players in Madden NFL 10 look like their real-life counterparts and play to their strengths and weaknesses like never before in a football video game.]"

Moore finishes his blog post by explaining how rookies will now come into the game based on the new rating ranges and players imported from NCAA will be tuned as well. And according to Moore: "Progression has been accounted for as well to better reflect breakout stars and burned-out former stars. Meaning, we want to have bigger jumps in OVR this year, both positive and negative."

To read even more in-depth info about the changes being made to the Madden ratings, check out Moore's blog.