One of the timeless arts of football game fans is the need to bicker almost which players are the all-time. In the past, this used to exist easy in Madden NFL 22 considering the player OVR meant everything. The level 99 players were e'er better than the level 90 players, no questions asked.

That all inverse with the introduction of X-Factor abilities. Now, a level 99 running back in Madden NFL 22 might be given an Ten-Cistron ability that makes them better at catching in one-on-1 coverage, while a lower-ranked halfback volition be given a superstar trait that runs over defenders with regularity. This factor alone tin make the lower-ranked player far more desirable than the "meliorate" actor. So which X-Factor abilities reign supreme? Bank check out the foam of the ingather.

Updated on April 24th, 2022 by Hodey Johns: Stats aren't meaningless exactly, but they no longer should be the first thing to consider when playing with a player or team in Madden NFL 22. X-Factor abilities now dominate the entire gameplay experience, equally a team that has great synergies and abilities will routinely smack around a statistically better team with weaker Ten-Factor abilities. The NFL is a game about superstars and the 10-Factors are how these superstars are identified. This list has been updated so that playing with an athlete with ane of these abilities will be a better experience and lead to more wins regardless of which mode is being played. As well, bullet points recommending what kind of player should consider the ability has been added to each section.

15/15 YAC 'Em Up

Madden NFL 22 Yac 'Em Up X Factor Description
  • Recommended for: Wide receivers and receiving running backs who savor quick passes on short routes.

It can be tough to unlock YAC 'Em Up, but that shouldn't stop players from giving information technology a shot. Later on getting 3 20+ g receptions, they will be almost guaranteed to break their first tackle. That means one-on-ane defenders are hosed.

Leveling up with more preparation points can exist a nifty way to get meliorate, but no amount of training will surpass this advantage. For receivers who feast on yards after the take hold of and need to be a brawl hog, this is a useful X-Factor power.

fourteen/xv First I Free

Madden NFL 22 First One Free X Factor Description
  • Recommended for: Elusive running backs that prefer to dodge the defense instead of coming together them head-on.

It'll take three 10+ yard runs, but later on that, this is a hard ability to lose. It goes away after getting tackled for a loss, simply the very nature of the X-Factor Ability itself makes it so losing it takes some seriously bad luck or bad play blueprint.

Anybody running back that wants to improve in franchise way will practise well to select First One Free. It makes the first juke, spin, or hurdle more constructive each run. Much of the time, it just takes ane such move to hit endzone paydirt.

13/xv Freight Train

Madden NFL 22 Freight Train X Factor Description
  • Recommended for: Running backs that become up the gut and truck against opponent tackles.

Take everything that makes Start One Free great and so tailor it for contact runners instead of elusive runners. Breaking a tackle tin be the divergence between a two-yard loss and the endzone. Freight Train intends to run into much more scoring.

Selecting an inferior X-Factor ability is one of many mistakes that players tin make in Madden NFL 22. Running backs are sometimes pressured to take a gimmicky option to fit in with a pass-heavy team. Freight Train shows but how unwise that is when it's observed on the field.

12/15 Relentless

Madden NFL 22 Relentless X Factor Description
  • Recommended for: Defensive linemen and blitzing linebackers that routinely confront blockers.

Part of the luminescence of Relentless is how often it can exist achieved. Make one tackle for a loss and the player is suddenly in the zone. It falls off after allowing 20+ yards of criminal offence, but getting it back is as simple as the next aggressive tackle.

The advantage is night and day. Existence able to use rush moves without giving upwardly whatsoever stamina makes for an unbelievable ability to crush the pocket. When equipped on interior defenders, they suddenly become amend sack specialists than outside linebackers.

11/15 Momentum Shift

Madden NFL 22 Momentum Shift X Factor Description
  • Recommended for: Players that use teammates and non simply their created thespian on defense.

Momentum Shift is a bit of an oddity because it isn't really a zone X-Factor ability. The player equipped with it gets no reward to themselves. Instead, momentum Shift acts equally a crushing blow against offensive superstars.

After the defensive line gets two sacks, Momentum Shift eliminates all other X-Factor abilities from the opposing team. Additionally, any progress made toward X-Factor abilities is wiped out. For many players with tough-to-earn X-Gene rewards, this makes it so they won't get into the zone for the rest of the game.

10/15 Bazooka

Madden NFL 22 Bazooka Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Quarterbacks that want to throw over the heads of the secondary and not underneath.

While a quarterback capable of throwing darts is great for those under routes, nearly every QB is capable of doing at least a moderate chore of tossing bullets. What sets the greats aside is existence able to deliver the perfect touch pass downfield.

This year, more players are getting an alert that sure throws are out of range. This reduces the amount of field they can play with and makes information technology piece of cake for secondary defenders to embrace more of the field. Bazooka overrides this limitation, allowing QBs to throw bombs over the safeties' heads.

ix/15 Double Me

Madden NFL 22 Double Me Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Deep threat wide receivers who enjoy aggressive catches.

Wide receivers, both in the game and in the actual NFL, tend to be taller and jump college than the defensive backs defending confronting them. The best of these receivers abuse this advantage, encouraging quarterbacks to throw it up at that place and using able-bodied prowess to win a fight for the ball.

Double Me tin stop a game before it begins, particularly since corners aren't capable of jumping as high as their counterparts. A throw into traffic tends to benefit the defense, but when this X-Factor ability is activated, there's essentially no risk when throwing into coverage.

eight/15 Pro Reads

Madden NFL 22 Pro Reads Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Quarterbacks that are quick on the trigger.

If Pro Reads delivered only i of its two benefits, it would probable yet be on this list. The fact that it gives two game-breaking abilities warrants its status as 1 of the best traits in the game that all of the best quarterbacks should exist using.

Ignoring pressure is a monstrous advantage that will make the QB more authentic. And, better still, Pro Reads highlights the outset open receiver on every play, near guaranteeing a completion so long as players press the right push button in time.

vii/15 Truzz

Madden NFL 22 Truzz Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Running backs and running quarterbacks that oftentimes accept hits in traffic.

Gamers that know how to use Truzz create advantages for themselves on every unmarried run play. Even the all-time running backs in the game have bollix problems when they effort as well hard, but this X-Factor trait makes it incommunicable to fumble.

That means that in that location is no chance when diving ahead on every play to choice upwards an actress iii or iv yards. On every play; simply remember most that! Or endeavor a spin or a hurdle to suspension free. Even the hardest-hitting defender can't jar the brawl loose.

6/15 Wrecking Ball

Madden NFL 22 Wrecking Ball Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Strong running backs that employ trucks and stiff arms as their go-to moves.

Running plays are fifty-fifty more than successful in Madden than they are in actual football game, just it always feels similar a shame when these five-m runs up the eye are stopped short past some of the game's best linebackers.

Wrecking Ball turns five-yard plays into fifty-yard plays past letting halfbacks wipe out the linebacker that is assigned to stop them. These runs up the center suddenly require lots of assist, which then helps the entire offense get better matchups.

v/15 Avalanche

Madden NFL 22 Avalanche Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Members of the defensive line or linebackers that primarily employ the striking stick to light up an opponent.

The greatest defensive linemen don't just rack up tackles and sacks, they go for turnovers past stripping the ball loose. This is a relatively rare event; even the game's best defensive players don't become more than a handful of forced fumbles in a flavor.

Avalanche completely throws off this residuum, however. Hitting sticks guarantee that the ball is forced loose, and so long every bit the tackle is made going toward the line of scrimmage. This might sound peculiar, merely consider that tackling an opponent abroad from the line of scrimmage will substantially never be fabricated with a striking stick since the defensive actor will be behind the ball carrier. Then, simply put, hits stick tackles will cause fumbles every time.

four/15 Reinforcement

Madden NFL 22 Reinforcement Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Defensive linemen and blitzing linebackers or coverage members that go for laissez passer breakups.

This X-Cistron trait helps stop the run and the pass at the same time. Even if a corner doesn't plan on blitzing or a lineman doesn't plan on dropping into coverage, both halves of this benefit make information technology worth picking up.

Every game of Madden NFL 22 likely has at to the lowest degree ten times that a receiver catches the ball and is quickly met by a defender. Imagine if, every time this happened, the receiver dropped the ball. Now imagine that it's easier to get through every blocker on the way to the quarterback or running dorsum. Reinforcement makes both of these dream situations come true.

iii/15 Run Stuffer

Madden NFL 22 Run Stuffer Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Players who rush the line and have to avoid blockers on every snap.

Players who have mastered the defensive controls might think they don't need Run Stuffer, just they'd be incorrect. Breaking off of a block isn't simply most pushing the right push button, it'due south too about chance. This makes it far more likely that players volition succeed subsequently hitting the correct button.

The other issue is that information technology takes forever for the animation of getting effectually a blocker to execute. Waiting for this action to fully resolve gives running backs more than plenty time to run by and quarterbacks enough time to throw. Run Stuffer eliminates this substantial disadvantage.

two/xv Shutdown

Madden NFL 22 Shutdown Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Cornerbacks and safeties that go for interceptions in man-on-homo defense.

Very just, interceptions are what nearly people measure when they call back of a practiced cornerback. There is a good reason that shutdown corners are coveted in the NFL and why Madden NFL 22 made the Shutdown 10-Factor and so powerful.

This superstar ability takes all those 50-fifty balls and gives the advantage of catching them from the receiver to the defender. Additionally, this makes their coverage tighter, then the AI stops playing so loose when playing man-to-man.

1/xv Unstoppable Force

Madden NFL 22 Unstoppable Force Description On The Website
  • Recommended for: Players who rush the line and accept to avert blockers on every snap.

Again, this is another ability that helps generate sacks by increasing the likelihood of shedding blockers. The caveat for Unstoppable Force is that it doesn't work when covered by two blockers.

Merely when being blocked by more than one lineman, it'due south highly unlikely that players volition be able to movement regardless. Fifty-fifty if offenses adjust, this double coverage leaves other linemen with one-on-one advantages confronting their blockers.

Madden NFL 22 was released on August 20th, 2021, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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