In the latest Madden 26 patch, players are talking-about an update that has just not gone down well with many. Safety depth is a fine cosmetic downgrade to a coaching adjustment now set to 16 yards: you can now stipulate how far back your safeties play-the great payback to all defensive strategy nerds. That said, what sounded good ended with an…well, mixed bag reception from the Madden crowd.
There is the full title update breakdown linked to by EA. But to be honest, most players have stopped reading. Instead, they populate the replies with complaints of other states-issues that still aren’t getting fixed. Like wide receivers dropping wide-open passes in the snow? Neal Hampton kept it short: “This update is horrible,” and demanded fixies from EA. He is not alone.
Also, franchise mode is currently broken. Chet Manley joined the sidelines and wondered aloud why the IR issue is still not fixed. For the uninitiated, his irritated musings are likely driven by injured reserve not working properly, which is a major headache if you are well into a franchise save. Exhorter- brought up another one, a bug with defensive coaching adjustments: Inside DBs bug out when you try to contain the DL. I mean, come on, EA, how does something like that happen?
But no, there’s more. With this update, MUT went down. SkyeReign was screaming: “MUT IS DOWN. HIT THE BUTTON,” echoing the feelings of those trapped with it who needed their fix of card collecting that day. AliasJefee and ishartedlol72 were already asking for a time window when it would resume, while sremy69 joked about missing out on wasting money on it. Classic.
Then we have uniform glitches. Just Sack Pat said that loads of players were rocking the wrong uniforms in franchise mode, and that just breaks immersion. SitesJacob asked for head coaches who have at least some semblance of correctness when it comes to gameplay-an obvious request that just never gets answered.
But, from the flip side, some people love the adjustments. “Loving these adjustments,” said Lukas, a good thing to hear, and dpb1402 joined in with a “We did it 🥹” which was probably more excitement at finally having the safety depth setting. Nonetheless, antdellafave criticized the order of the settings, saying they should be in either ascending or descending order, not some random one.
Put all that aside for a minute. At a grander scale, the reason behind the uproar from players is tied to the feeling that EA has gone off on some tangential detour. Flexn Beatz called out MUT card updates for giving cards to lower-impact players, while others that deserve them aren’t. So, why bother adding new features when the old ones are still broken?
So where exactly are we then? Madden 26 is still very much a work in progress, and this update shows that EA is indeed listening, just not enough. This new coaching adjustment takes a big step for the hardcore players that demand further control over their defense, but for everyone else, it is just another band-aid for bigger problems.
If you venture into Madden 26 today, expect some nice changes, but keep in mind it comes with all those old bugs. And maybe, just maybe, watch out for additional updates because EA still has loads to do. Meanwhile, go and play around with that safety depth setting and hope that your online games won’t desync, as Devin Caldwell pointed out. Have fun, folks.
