With the release of "Madden NFL 22," it's time to begin your Madden Ultimate Team journey.
One of the first steps to creating your team is picking a team captain. Just like in previous years, the team captain comes with a number of benefits, most notably the team chemistry boost to help you build your theme teams. But the team captain can also be a useful player for your roster, especially in the beginning as they all start out as 85 overall and be upgraded to 89.
Some of the benefits of the team captain:
- 3x team chemistry (to start)
- Can equip any NFL team chemistry
- Can upgrade from 85 to 89 OVR at launch
- Each Ability costs 5 Training to unlock
- Each Superstar X-Factor Ability is 10 Training to unlock
This year you can pick from LE Jack Youngblood, SS John Lynch, RB Shaun Alexander or WR Lance Alworth. Below, we'll go through all of their traits and explain the pros and cons of each player to help you make the right decision for your team.
MORE: Best players in the MUT database
Team captains in MUT 22
LE Jack Youngblood
Jack Youngblood is a solid card at left end, a position that isn't as fun in MUT. But that's exactly why I like Youngblood as a team captain. As the season progresses, you're going to want specific cards at wide receiver and running back, which means Lance Alworth and Shaun Alexander become unappealing. Youngblood is someone you can put on your defensive line. As the season progresses, he may not even be on your field, but you can still benefit from the team chemistries.
SS John Lynch
John Lynch begins the year as one of the best overall strong safeties. Although Lynch was never a super fast player, so as the MUT season progresses you'll likely want a safety with better speed than Lynch. With how interchangeable safeties are in MUT, I'd rather have someone like FS Trevon Moehrig who is 86 overall with 90 speed. Also, this year's Ultimate Champion is SS Kam Chancellor, so it makes more sense to ride with him than Lynch.
RB Shaun Alexander
Shaun Alexander is probably the worst option of the team captains. He's a fine card, but if you're like me you want a running back that has a specialty. Meaning you either want a true power back like the 88 overall Derrick Henry, a receiving threat like Christian McCaffrey or a speedster like Raheem Mostert. Alexander has good stats all around, but running back is one of the most important positions in MUT, and I'd rather have the freedom to choose the guy I want rather than be stuck with a team captain.
WR Lance Alworth
Lance Alworth is a very solid card at the beginning of MUT as his 88 speed (at his 89 OVR) rivals some of the fastest receivers despite him not being a deep threat archetype. The fact he's a route runner archetype with near top speed makes him a very appealing card, at least in the early MUT days.
The best team captain in MUT 22
For early MUT, Lance Alworth and Shaun Alexander are pretty solid choices. They're among the best players at their respective positions, and with being important positions you can test out abilities and X-Factors on them at a cheaper rate since they're team captains. Since you can exchange team captains throughout the season, it makes sense to go with one of them for the early part of the season.
However, as the season progresses I'd imagine Jack Youngblood becomes a popular choice, similar to La'Roi Glover a year ago. So many cards come out that will fit your roster better than a team captain, which is why I don't like relying on them for positions like wide receiver or running back.
John Lynch doesn't make a ton of sense as an option considering Kam Chancellor is the Ultimate Champion (what Madden called the MUT Master last year). Although when upgraded, Chancellor can get SS, FS, and CB chems, so in theory you could put Lynch at SS and Chancellor at FS.
So depending on your play style, going with Alworth or Alexander early and then switching to Youngblood later is a solid strategy. Personally I'll go with Youngblood from the beginning because I'm particular about who I want at wide receiver and running back.