Madden NFL 25 cover reveal: Ranking top five players most deserving to be featured next on iconic video game

Every video game sports fan is anxiously awaiting the return of EA Sports’ College Football 25 later this summer, but don’t forget Madden NFL. The iconic video game is gearing up for its latest iteration and we’ll soon have a better idea of ​​what the game will actually look like, specifically the cover. On Friday, Madden NFL announced on X who will reveal their newest cover athlete on Tuesday, June 11th.

It made us wonder who it could be. While we wait for EA Sports’ official announcement, let’s look at our top five candidates and explain why they deserve to appear on the cover of Madden NFL 25.

A defensive player hasn’t been featured on the cover since Richard Sherman in Madden NFL 15, so it seems that side of the ball is due for a player to receive the honor. What better player than Aaron Donald, who announced his retirement earlier this offseason. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year is without a doubt the best defensive player to ever play the game and this would be a fantastic way to send him off into the sunset. EA Sports could even repeat their “GOAT Edition” with Donald, like they did with Tom Brady in Madden NFL 18.

Jefferson is widely considered the best wide receiver in the NFL and just received a monster extension that makes him the highest-paid non-QB in the league To prove it. The beginning of his career was nothing short of historic. The 24-year-old has the most receiving yards (5,899) and 100-yard receiving games (29) through the first four years of his career in league history. Jefferson has the flash, name recognition and production to be a surefire cover candidate and would be the first wide receiver to land the cover since Antonio Brown in Madden NFL 19.

McCaffrey would be an ideal selection. He is one of the NFL’s most recognized stars, a fantasy football stud and arguably the best running back in football. That’s a recipe for a Madden cover athlete if I ever saw one. The Niners star is coming off a 2023 season where he won the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award after leading the league in total yards from scrimmage (2,023) and total touchdowns (21). This type of season seems to set the stage for landing the Madden NFL 25 cover. If you’ve played Madden in recent years, you also know that McCaffrey is one of the most fun backs to use.

He would be the first running back to score the cover since Adrian Peterson and Barry Sanders donned it in the 25th anniversary edition released in 2013.

The cover of Madden NFL is a lot like the MVP award – it’s focused on the quarterback. Four of the last five covers have been headlined by quarterbacks. So we couldn’t go much further into this list without at least highlighting one possible signal-caller who could be the cover athlete. While there are a few worthy candidates, CJ Stroud is the most intriguing. The second overall pick is coming off one of the most impressive rookie seasons for a quarterback in NFL history.

Stroud was the youngest starting quarterback to win a playoff game as he led the Texans to the AFC South title and victory over the Browns during Super Wild Card Weekend in Year 1. During that season, he also set a record for most of yards passed. in a single game by a rookie (470) and tied the record for the rookie with most passing touchdowns (five) in a single game. Although he is still early in his career, Stroud is as exciting a quarterback prospect as we have in the NFL and the next step in his rise to stardom could very well be the cover of Madden NFL.

I mean, you should have seen this coming, right? Over the past year, Travis Kelce has gone from being one of the NFL’s greatest tight ends to bursting into the mainstream as an A-list celebrity. This is largely due to his relationship with Taylor Swift, but Kelce continues to put himself in the discussion as the greatest tight end of all time and is hoisting Lombardi Trophies in the process. Kelce and the Chiefs are coming off their second straight game Super Bowl title and its stock has never been higher. In fact, he is probably the most well-known non-quarterback in the NFL. Given his level of fame at the moment and his status as a Hall of Famer, he’s an obvious favorite to be the cover athlete.