Madden NFL 26 releases gameplay deep dive!

As we get closer to the release of Madden NFL 26, EA Sports has released their brand new gameplay deep dive. While I won't post the whole thing here, I did want to pinpoint some of the updates I'm most excited about for this year.

QB DNA

The NFL Quarterback is the most iconic position in all of sports. As we continue pushing the ball forward with signature styles in Madden, we saw an opportunity to completely re-imagine the performance of the position.  What we mean when we say ‘performance’ includes all of the following: visual quality, signature behaviors, improved AI, and new mechanics. Thus, we are delivering significant enhancements across each component that makes up a QB’s DNA in our game so that they play, look, and feel iconic.

Here’s a list of all the new ball holds: Gunslinger, Gunslinger One Hand, Gunslinger Mid, Gunslinger One Hand Low, Two Hand Middle, Two Hand Middle Back, Two Hand Middle Below Chin, Two Hand Low

I'm always a fan when you can fully replicate a player's style or favorite arm angle. In older Madden titles, they had actual names attached to the arm angle. As a Dolphins fan, I would generally pick the Chad Pennington arm angle. The best way to have a made up player replicate your favorite will be to edit the player you like and check which of these they use.

Passing

We didn’t stop there. We’re also introducing three unique base arm slots - Over-Top, 3 / 4 High and 3/ 4 Low that will be assigned to each QB based on what their default throw angle is in real life. QBs who frequently change their arm slot, like Matt Stafford, will be able to dynamically change from one arm-slot to another based in order to get the pass through an open lane. 

Again, I love the freedom to be able to replicate favorite players throughout a time period for modes like Franchise Mode. So bringing in a young QB behind a veteran, it would make sense their arm angle might be influenced.

QB AI Improvements

Beyond the scope of new player traits, we’ve also made some fundamental improvements to general QB AI to ensure that playing against the AI will generally be more rewarding and realistic.

This will allow for players to have more fun playing solo or with friends at different positions. AI QBs having more freedom to act like that QB or recognize down and distance will make games more competitive, but especially for solo players. We've also all run into the problem of online dynasty moments where someone chooses a team with no other live-players and get a 15-2 record and then play one live person and get obliterated. This should even that up a bit.

Football Weather

“THAT’S Football Weather!” is one of the many quotes from the great John Madden himself. He exuded pride in the historic and unique link between extreme weather conditions and NFL football. Madden NFL 26 is delivering a set of features under this name - Football Weather - that combines the visceral nature of the weather look and the significant impact it has on gameplay.

As I spoke on in the gameplay hands-on preview, weather will impact games much more heavily than ever before. Not being able to see at all down the field in a snow storm or players slipping in the rain will feel much more real and change the way you play the game. I'm excited to talk in the future about how this will impact other game modes.

Depth Chart Positions

In 2025, NFL players are more dynamic than ever. The positional designations of 20+ years ago are often outdated. Madden NFL 26 is modernizing position listings across depth charts. This has been a long-time community wishlist item and also been a longtime desire of NFL players across the league. Updating our depth charts means there’s one NFL position that will finally be represented accurately in our game: The Long Snapper! J.J. Jansen fans, rejoice! We have finally made the long snapper position a primary depth chart position with a long snap rating. That’s just the start.  

Our depth chart positions in Madden 26 will also include new primary positions for Edge (LEDG & REDG) and SAM, MIKE and WILL linebackers, and a secondary position for Nose Tackle (DT archetype as well) and a new Gadget player (Think Taysom Hill or Deebo Samuel).

We've been waiting a while for this one folks, but they've done the thing! We now have the ability to move people around to very specific positions and I can't wait. The Dolphins defense has had weird lineups for a while and it's quite annoying to have to keep changing players like Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips to other positions to get them to do what they do in real life. Hopefully this fixes that!

Everything else can be found on the EA website for you to look through and get more information about the new gameplay updates for Madden NFL 26.

Keep an eye on GamingTrend.com for all your Madden NFL 26 news, impressions, and reviews.