The end-of-season roster update for Madden NFL 12 is set to go live on Friday, and there's a list of changes for the San Francisco 49ers. They'll likely keep receiving updates throughout the playoffs, providing they aren't bounced out in the divisional round, but for now, they've got updates based on Week 16 and Week 17, as they skipped a week due to the holidays. The 49ers are actually coming out well in this update, with nine changes to player rating, and only one of them being a decrease.
That being said, it's a very silly, stupid decrease that makes zero sense. When this game came out, they decreased linebacker Patrick Willis, widely considered to be the best linebacker in the league, to 98 overall. He quickly earned the 99 rating back, but was injured near the end of the season. Despite being injured, the folks at EA decided to drop him back down to 98, just so they could finish the game without the 99. It's a big history about Willis and not having the 99 rating, though I really can't explain why they don't want him to happen. Regardless, it's idiotic and unjustified. Make the jump for a full list of 49ers changes.
Increases
TE Vernon Davis 92 to 94
WR Michael Crabtree 83 to 84
DL Ricky Jean Francois 67 to 70
LB NaVorro Bowman 87 to 89
LB Parys Haralson 82 to 84
CB Tramaine Brock 70 to 72
CB Tarell Brown 78 to 80
P Andy Lee 96 to 97
Decreases
LB Patrick Willis 99 to 98
Good to see Bowman get close to 90 OVR in his first season starting but, again, this is pretty much silliness. Justin Smith also did not get an increase to 99, which is unexpected.