Madden 22 Team of the Year has officially kicked off with the voting now underway to select the league's best from this season.
RealSport's own took to the polls and we've each picked out our Madden 22 Ultimate Team of the Year, or at least the one we'd make based on the nominations put forth by EA.
Madden 22 TOTY: RealSport writers pick their Ultimate Team of the Year
Team of the Year is finally here, and EA has taken a cue from FIFA 22 by making the Madden 22 choices into a fan vote.
After some anticipation through the week, voting went live at midnight and will continue through the weekend with the promo itself landing on January 25, 2022.
If you want to go cast your vote now, we have more info here on how to do that and how long you have until the voting ends.
RealSport's own core of US writers have all taken to the voting website ourselves to see who we think deserves to be on the Madden 22 Team of the Year.
At least, we selected who we think deserves it based on the nominees provided by EA, despite the fact that several huge stars were snubbed from those nominations.
Without further ado, let's get into the selections RealSport made for Madden 22 Team of the Year with some words from each writer about their picks.
Patches Chance's Madden 22 Team of the Year
While Justin Jefferson might be the most undeniable nominee on offense, the dark horse here is Derek Carr who pushed the Las Vegas Raiders to their first postseason appearance since 2016.
Elsewhere on offense, Chris Godwin might be one of the more underrated names here as his average of 78.8 yards per game are nothing to sneeze at in an already stacked Buccaneers offense.
There's no arguing with Trevon Diggs on defense and his league-best 11 interceptions on the year, which was 3 ahead of second-place ball hawk J.C. Jackson.
Unfortunately, names like Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp that I would've loved to vote for found themselves completely absent in the TOTY nominations put forth by EA.
Ricky Gray's Madden 22 Team of the Year
If you're noticing a lot of Patriots players on my Madden 22 Team of the Year ballot, it's because you can't argue with efficiency. Mac Jones is a rookie QB that led his team to the playoffs under the tutelage of Bill Belichick.
On defense, who can argue with the tenacity that the Patriots bring? On average, the Patriots allow just 17.8 points per game, ranking second in the NFL. Matthew Judon is responsible for this uptick in defensive prowess.
I believe most of my other picks explain themselves, Justin Jefferson is the only reason Minnesota won games this season. Myles Garrett fought his way into the 99 Club, and Deebo Samuel showed versatility at multiple levels.
Brandon Ridgely's Madden 22 Team of the Year
The Madden 22 Team of the Year was made a little bit harder to pick due to many of the true best in the league not making the cut for voting. With this, there are many third, fourth, and lower choices making the list. My decisions were made based on how well each player slotted into their roles for their team, taking into account team strength and other external factors.
With that in mind, my lineman decisions were very straightforward and based on how well these players protected their QBs from rushes and knockdowns (including pocket time) as well as quality in the run game. For offensive skill positions, it was all about the production, and players that stayed healthy enough to make the most impact. And as much as I wanted to give HB to Joe Mixon as a Bengals fan, Nick Chubb's overall numbers in a shared backfield made him the easiest pick of the entire TOTY process.
For Defense, I trended toward best individual performances and players that went the extra mile (sometimes to account for a lack of talent around them) while still putting up top-tier production. With this in mind, Trevon Diggs and Myles Garrett were my standout picks as true TOTY representatives that would win out on any list of candidates.
The Team of the Year Specialists are an interesting list of candidates, and the standout picks of my lineup would be Matt Gay at Kicker for his ruthless efficiency at distance and Devin Duvernay at Returner for his reliability and consistency.