The Atlanta Falcons celebrated one of their own this week, posting a Madden NFL 27 player-card graphic for right guard Chris Lindstrom with the caption “The OG,” tagging his personal account. The card lists him at 93 overall — one point below where he sat a year ago.
Madden NFL 27 gives Lindstrom a 93 overall rating, down from the 94 he carried into Madden NFL 26, according to Madden Ratings. He’s tagged with the Power Archetype, and his top individual attribute is Awareness at 97, per the same tracking site.
It’s a modest dip for a player who’s started every game he’s been healthy for since Atlanta drafted him 14th overall out of Boston College in 2019. Lindstrom is a four-time Pro Bowler and four-time second-team All-Pro, and he enters this season having played 105 career games — all as a starter.
The OG
😤 @C_Lindstrom63 pic.twitter.com/s4QzWhrL3e
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) August 2, 2026
Why the Number Stings a Little
A 93 overall is still elite by any normal measure. But in Madden’s own rankings, it wasn’t enough to crack the top 10 offensive linemen in the game. FOX Sports listed Chicago’s Joe Thuney as the highest-rated interior lineman at 96 overall, with Denver’s Quinn Meinerz, Indianapolis’ Quenton Nelson and Washington’s Laremy Tunsil rounding out the guard-heavy portion of the list. FOX Sports called Lindstrom’s absence from that group one of the rating reveal’s bigger snubs, noting he’s been one of the league’s most dependable interior linemen.
The full top guard list from Madden’s own site backs that up. Thuney tops it at 96, with Meinerz at 95 and Nelson at 94, according to Madden Ratings‘ guard rankings.
| Player | Team | Madden 27 Overall |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Thuney | Chicago Bears | 96 |
| Quinn Meinerz | Denver Broncos | 95 |
| Quenton Nelson | Indianapolis Colts | 94 |
| Chris Lindstrom | Atlanta Falcons | 93 |
Falcons fans didn’t need Madden to tell them what they already knew. The Atlanta Falcons account framed him plainly — “The OG” — pointing followers to Lindstrom’s own account for the reveal, in a post shared on X this week.
The Real-World Résumé Behind the Rating
Madden ratings are a marketing exercise, but Lindstrom’s actual on-field grades have tracked with the hype. He finished the 2025 season with an 88.4 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, ranking second among 81 qualified guards, driven largely by a 91.7 run-blocking grade that also ranked second at the position, according to PFF. The year before that, per a Falcons-focused report from SI/OnSI, he’d finished as PFF’s highest-graded guard in the league at 93.5, while his 94 overall in Madden NFL 26 made him the second-highest-rated guard in that year’s game.
None of it has come with much national spotlight. Atlanta’s playoff drought stretched into an eighth straight year in 2025, and individual recognition for offensive linemen tends to follow winning teams. A recent SI/OnSI feature on Lindstrom made that point directly, arguing his lack of wider acclaim has more to do with the Falcons’ record than his own play.
What’s Next
Madden NFL 27 is set to release worldwide on Aug. 21, and EA Sports has been rolling out position-by-position top-10 lists in the weeks leading up to launch. Lindstrom’s number won’t move again until an in-season roster update, the same mechanism that bumped him up a point between Madden 26 and Madden 25 last year.
For now, it’s a 93 — good enough for a starting job on any roster in the league, not quite good enough for Madden’s own top 10.
