The gameplay trailer for EA Sports Madden 21 was released on Tuesday morning, showing a few new gameplay quirks such as an improved ball-carrier control stick, ‘clutch’ open-field tackling, and user-generated touchdown celebrations.
For brief moments, both Washington Redskins DE Chase Young, and RB Derrius Guice were featured in the 90-second clip, but any fan of the Burgundy & Gold couldn’t help but notice the absence of Terry McLaurin. While Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson graces the cover, which is set with an additional ‘MVP Edition’ available, it got us to thinking — who is the most likely player in Washington to be featured on the Madden cover one day? We decided to rank it out.
Before we get into the rankings, let’s look at which position players they normally give the covers to. Since the game started featuring NFL athletes on the front in 2000, these are the positions who have been put on the front:
Quarterback: 8
Running Back: 5
Wide Receiver: 4
Defensive Player: 3
Tight End: 1
With that being said, let’s get down to the rankings.
No. 1 — QB Dwayne Haskins
Shocker, right? He may not be the best player on the Redskins right now or even have the highest ceiling from skill-position players, but his path to a Madden cover is the most visible from here. All it would take for Haskins to become an NFL star and household name is to have a couple of great seasons, lead the Redskins on a deep playoff run, and be fun to watch while doing so. Those may seem like three big steps to take, but considering all of the buzz that we’ve heard from him this offseason, and the improvement we witnessed near the end of 2019, I don’t think Haskins becoming a legitimate NFL QB is as out of the question as you may think.
What if Haskins takes a step forward, Derrius Guice stays healthy, Terry McLaurin continues to thrive, and the defense is as dominant as expected? I’m not saying he’s going to be the cover athlete for Madden 22, but 23 or 24? I’d buy it. Haskins has the looks, he has the personality, and he has the style. Now he just needs the accolades to go along with it.
No. 2 — WR Terry McLaurin
Wide receivers may be slightly less likely to make the cover than running backs are, but McLaurin could be one of the next big things to take over the NFL, as his rookie season showed that he is in some rare air when it comes to receiving talent.
Though WRs who make the Madden cover are usually veteran players with a lot to show for their careers — Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Antonio Brown — there is a case for McLaurin seeing as Odell Beckham Jr. graced the cover on Madden 16, which was just his second year in the league. If McLaurin had another stand-out season and made it to a Pro Bowl in each of the next two years, I could definitely see him becoming a cover-star.
No. 3 — RB Derrius Guice
We know that Derrius Guice is at least on the league’s radar since he was briefly featured in the Madden 21 gameplay trailer on Tuesday. We also know that the talent is there for Guice, it’s just been a question as to whether he can stay healthy enough over the course of a season to make enough of a difference for his team. Throughout his two years in the NFL, he’s played only a total of five games and been placed on the IR three times. However, in those five games, he’s definitely provided us with enough highlights to have fans begging for more.
Should Guice kick the injury bug and be able to stay on the field, look for him to make waves in the NFL, and potentially become a star that young football fans want to play with in Madden.
No. 4 — Chase Young
It may seem odd that Chase Young fell all the way to No. 4 on our list, but that’s simply because Madden has shown a propensity to ignore defenders when it comes to putting players on the cover. In the last 20 years, only a total of three defenders have been on the cover, and one of those years, both Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Palomalu shared the cover in 2010. There has yet to be a defensive lineman or DE on the cover, with the only non-secondary player being Ray Lewis.
Young may have the biggest opportunity to become a star in the NFL, but not all stars make the cover. The league’s affinity for skill-position players and touchdown-makers is impossible to ignore, and it leaves difference-makers like Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack, and eventually Young, out in the cold when it comes to recognition. However, with a new feature that includes ‘clutch open-field tackling’ and ‘improved edge-rushing’ it might signal that the game creators are starting to realize the need to glorify defenders and sacks. The fact of the matter is that if Chase Young can truly be as great as some people believe he will be, there’s a chance he will be the first DE to ever grade the Madden cover.
No. 5 — RB Antonio Gibson
A rookie running back who was drafted in the third round and who we’ve never seen play a snap in the NFL? It seems like a long shot, but the ceiling is pretty high for Gibson, a do-it-all RB who believes that he can be a Christian McCaffrey-type player in the NFL, especially now that he’s being taught by a coaching staff who saw McCaffrey rise to prominence. If it weren’t for Lamar Jackson’s stellar 2019 campaign, you could have easily convinced me that McCaffrey deserved the Madden cover, as he became a fan and fantasy favorite over the season. Picking Gibson as one of the Redskins most likely to make the cover is just building off of that blueprint that has been set by the Carolina Panthers’ superstar.
