Madden 15 Ratings: Buccaneers are surprisingly good

The Madden 15 ratings are out, including those for the Buccaneers. You can find every little detail on the Bucs' roster (and that of the AFC and NFC South) here, but we copied those ratings below, too.

Amusingly, Carl Nicks is the third-best player on the roster despite effectively retiring last week. Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David are of course the best players around, but Michael Johnson and Alterraun Verner alongside Mark Barron and Dashon Goldson make this a pretty well-stocked defense.

On offense, the skill positions dominate: Vincent Jackson and Doug Martin have Pro Bowl-ratings, with Mike Evans, Demar Dotson, Anthony Collins and Evan Dietrich-Smith all sitting with ratings in the 80s. In fact, that entire offensive line is pretty good -- provided you can live with actually playing Carl Nicks. Even Josh McCown has an 83 rating.

It's far from a perfect roster, but it's a very solid start as a building block. Though that's not what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are planning to be this year.