The NFL season is nearly over, with just Super Bowl LX on Sunday yet to play, but there’s no offseason in the modern NFL. As soon as things wrap up on the field, it’s time to start looking ahead, and as gamers, that means looking forward to Madden 27. One of the big reveals early in any annual sports franchise release is the announcement of who will be the game’s cover athlete.
This is a high honor, even if, for significant periods after Madden moved from the titular commentator to a current athlete, it was also viewed as a curse, sure to doom a player to a down year. While we don’t know who EA will choose to be its cover athlete and take the place of Saquon Barkley next season quite yet, that doesn’t mean we can’t take a logical guess. By assessing who the leading candidates are and what they did on the field this year to earn the honor, we can come to a conclusion on who deserves the honor of being the Madden 27 cover athlete.
Top Candidates For Madden 27 Cover Athlete & Their Chances Of Earning The Honor
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With just one game to go in the NFL season, nearly every player has wrapped up performances that might earn them the honor of being on the cover of Madden 27, with only frontrunner Jaxon Smith-Njigba yet to play in the big game. To handicap who is and is not likely to end up on the cover, we’ve taken a look at the eight leading names on markets for the position to assess who seems like a favorite and who will likely be waiting another year:
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR – Seattle Seahawks): Smith-Njigba came into the year as a potential breakout star and proved to be just that, building off a strong sophomore campaign with a stellar year three. His 1,793 saw him top the league, while his 119 receptions came fourth and ten touchdowns sixth for a season that likely saw him leading someone in your fantasy league deep into the playoffs, just as his Seahawks will play in the Super Bowl. He sits as the strong favorite to be on the cover, and it’s hard to argue against him getting the nod.
- Caleb Williams (QB – Chicago Bears): Just below Smith-Njigba is a duo of players who each carry reasonable chances at being chosen for the cover, and the most likely of the two to rob Smith-Njigba is Williams. The position of Bears quarterback is among the most cursed roles in all of sports, and after C.J. Stroud’s incredible rookie year compared to Williams, it looked like the trend may be continuing, but nobody is predicting that now. Williams led the Bears to the top of the most competitive division in football, winning an NFC North that saw all four teams over .500 before completing one of the greatest throws of all time in a stunning comeback win over the rival Green Bay Packers in the playoffs.
- Bijan Robinson (RB – Atlanta Falcons): The last player with a strong chance according to the odds, Robinson spent the 2025 season being roughly the entire Falcons offense. His 1,478 rushing yards were fourth in the NFL, with Devon Achane the only rusher over 1,000 yards to beat his 5.2 yards per carry. He scored on the ground eight times and added another four through the air, where he tacked on 79 receptions and 820 yards. Throw in his propensity for getting a lot of those yards on explosive, exciting plays, and you have the recipe for a strong contender to make a cover.
- Jonathan Taylor (RB – Indianapolis Colts): Twenty touchdowns. The case for Jonathan Taylor as a cover athlete goes beyond his scoring, but it is hard to start anywhere other than noting that he had 18 rushing touchdowns and an additional two on the ground. He was also third in the NFL with 1,585 yards rushing and another 378 through the air, while leading one of the most surprisingly dominant teams of the first half of the season. Sadly for Taylor, a Colts dropoff when Daniel Jones went down torpedoed the team’s relevance and possibly Taylor’s cover star candidacy at the same time.
- Micah Parsons (EDGE – Green Bay Packers): Micah Parsons had a strange year, putting up some very good stats while on the field, but starting and ending it on the injury report. After a blockbuster trade sent Parsons to the Pacers in the preseason and ensured he’d be one of the biggest stars in the sport, his chances of transforming that attention into a cover role sadly took a hit when he came in on restricted minutes recovering from an injury, and then saw his season ended early with a knee injury in December. He’s likely out of serious contention as a result.
- Josh Allen (QB – Buffalo Bills): With the other big-name quarterbacks in the league all having down years, the path seemed to be clear for Allen to finally lead his Bills to their long-coveted Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Allen and his cover chances, his record streak of snaps without a turnover came to an end in calamitous fashion as four turnovers from Allen doomed the Bills in an overtime loss to the Broncos in the playoffs.
- Ja’Marr Chase (WR – Cincinnati Bengals): The first of two star receivers closing out the top eight by prediction markets, Ja’Marr Chase had a stellar year by any normal standards but also one that felt like a bit of a disappointing one by his, coming in “just” fourth in receptions with 8 touchdowns for a Bengals team that spent much of the year without star QB Joe Burrow.
- Justin Jefferson (WR – Minnesota Vikings): Jefferson is the second elite pass catcher to be hanging onto the tail of the cover chase. His 12th-most yards in the league would be a banner year for most players, but for Jefferson, it was a letdown, especially with just two scores. He has good chances of seeing a cover someday, but likely not this one.
Who Should Be On The Cover Of Madden NFL 27?
Sometimes, the consensus of the crowd is all you need to reach the right conclusion. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is currently the massive favorite to be selected, and it’s hard to see past him when you assess the other contenders. He was nearly unplayable for Seattle with a quarterback that the football world remains tepid on at best, and will have a chance to put a final stamp on his candidacy with a Super Bowl showout, something none of the other top contenders will have the option to do.
Do you agree that the Seahawks wideout will be be on covers around the world soon or do you favor another player?
