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Saquon Barkley’s record-setting NFL campaign has earned him a spot on the cover of Madden(Image: Getty)<\/p>\nSuper Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has been named the cover athlete for Madden NFL 26, but he couldn’t believe he was asked if he wanted to front the game<\/p>\n
04:14 ET, 05 Aug 2025Updated 04:14 ET, 05 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
Saquon Barkley’s record-setting NFL campaign has earned him a spot on the cover of Madden(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Saquon Barkley admitted he couldn’t believe it when he was asked to grace the cover of Madden NFL 26<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the back of a Super Bowl<\/a> and NFL Offensive Player of the Year-winning campaign<\/a>, Barkley, who tallied over just 2,000 yards on the ground last season, adding another 278 in the air, has been handed the honour of being named Madden’s cover athlete<\/a> for the 2026 renewal.<\/p>\n The 28-year-old former Penn State<\/a> running back, who landed in Philly<\/a> after leaving his long-time home with the New York Giants<\/a> in 2024, was shocked to learn that those who appear on the game’s cover are actually asked whether they want to be.<\/p>\n “I say this every time someone asks me that question; they actually ask you, ‘Do you want to be on the cover of Madden?'” Barkley said on the Pardon My Take<\/a> podcast when queried on the feat.<\/p>\n “I wonder how many people have ever said no. They just ask you first, and you have to accept being on the cover of Madden, and to me, I’m like, ‘Why would I ever say no?’<\/p>\n “But, you know, being on the cover of Madden, just with how many guys that I grew up watching and been fans of [that have been on it], been watching football for a really long time.<\/p>\n “To be in that fraternity now is something that is… My kids are gonna always be able to go and go to this certain Madden and see their dad on there. My nieces and nephews and team-mates. It’s cool, it’s really cool.”<\/p>\n Not only will Barkley be fronting Madden 26’s cover, but after a season that saw him rush for the eighth-highest number of yards in a single NFL campaign, the New York-born superstar will join an exclusive club of players to be rated 99 on the game, the highest rating one can achieve.<\/p>\n “Ninety-nine is big,” he continued. “I don’t got to go and edit my player and make myself a 99 anymore! But, it’s cool, 99 on Madden. Madden is just part of the culture of football growing up.<\/p>\n “You want to make it to the NFL, but you think about being a 99 overall, you think about being on the cover, being in Madden in general, so this has been super, super amazing, I’m not going to lie.”<\/p>\n Asked whether he actually plays the game, which began life as John Madden Football in 1988 and is named after the late iconic Oakland Raiders<\/a> coach, Barkley admitted that he still does, mainly utilising the game’s Franchise Mode.<\/p>\n “Yeah, of course, I play Madden in a weird way,” added former Offensive Rookie of the Year Barkley. “I guess it’s not really that weird, but to me, I play Franchise Mode.<\/p>\n “I go on, I take a team, I’ll trade all their great players, get as many draft picks as I can, and then draft random guys and kind of make a rebuild. That’s like how I play Madden. No [I don’t play with the Eagles]. We’re pretty good. I pick a random team. Right now, it’s probably the Jets or the Rams.”<\/p>\n Barkley will be hoping he can swerve the dreaded Madden curse<\/a>, a popular belief that players who feature on the cover suffer from subpar seasons or unfortunate injuries. Last year, for example, fellow running back Christian McCaffrey graced the cover, and only played four games because of an injury nightmare<\/a> while his San Francisco 49ers<\/a> went 6-11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has been named the cover athlete for Madden NFL 26,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,7,58,56,255,6,15,1644,242,109,2476,252,894,505],"class_list":{"0":"post-263309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions-football","16":"tag-philadelphia","17":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","18":"tag-philadelphiaeagles","19":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","20":"tag-saquon-barkley","21":"tag-super-bowl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114975360441620567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Eagles](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_NFL-Barkley-cover.jpg\")
Barkley will front the Standard and Deluxe covers of the game(Image: Electronic Arts Inc.)<\/p>\n