Will the 2025 Eagles Suffer the Madden Curse?

After reading a CBS Sports article about how real the Madden Curse is, I wanted to put my own spin on the subject.

Saquon Barkley is the first Madden cover athlete the Eagles have had since Donovan McNabb, who appeared on Madden ‘06 exactly 20 years ago. 

Cody Benjamin considered McNabb to be cursed after a disappointing 2006 season, in addition to some injury concerns. But surely Barkley won’t end up the same way after such a historic season? Let’s find out.

The Madden Curse Cast of Characters

While Benjamin found that only 14 out of the 24 cover athletes of the 21st century have been cursed, every single running back on the board is a part of that cursed group. 

Between Eddie George, Marshall Faulk, Shaun Alexander, Peyton Hillis, Adrian Peterson and Christian McCaffrey, all of them were either injured or took major skids after their stint of video-game fame. 

And it makes sense. The running back position is historically one that can shine bright and change teams, but they rarely sustain that success for long. The common denominator is simple, but really helps put into perspective why these star running backs are so “unlucky.” 

Great running backs have to have a lot of touches to convert that into a lot of yards, but these running backs who have graced the cover of Madden carry and catch the ball significantly more than their peers.

The Workhorse Problem

Starting with the number of touches taken the year before their slides, all the running backs above were in the top five in the NFL, except for Hillis and Faulk. 

Hillis is a routine outlier in the research, which totally checks out. Hillis is the ultimate outlier, especially when it comes to Madden cover athletes. His one 1,000-yard rushing year came in 2010, but he never saw over 600 yards for the rest of his remaining four years in the NFL. He won’t be worth bringing up again because his sharp decline is such a historical rarity.

However, Faulk was top 10 in touches across the 2001 and 2002 seasons, right before his injury-riddled 2003 campaign that would spell the end of his career. It’s important to note that despite the fact that Faulk wasn’t taking as many touches as these peers in the years directly before his decline, he was a premier workhorse for many years before. 

From the start of his career in 1994 until his Madden cover appearance in 2003, Faulk was second in the league in touches in that span, trailing only fellow Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.

How much tread is on those tires?

In fact, all the other running backs followed this trend too. All of the backs (except Hillis) spent at least five years playing before getting selected for Madden. George and Peterson both led the league in touches from the start of their careers until their Madden cover appearances. Alexander, McCaffrey and now Barkley were all in the top five of their respective spans as well.

The last factor might be the most damning, and that’s age. Running backs already have the shortest careers on average when evaluating different positions, and running backs on the Madden cover have been routinely caught toward the end of their primes. 

Aside from Hillis, every running back was 27 or older the year they got on the cover, which is generally considered the beginning of the downturn for the position. 

Faulk and Alexander were subject to their 28- and 29-year-old seasons immediately after their cover appearances, which led to the worst declines among all the other backs. Both of them sputtered out and retired in just two years after reaching the pinnacle of individual NFL achievement.

Peterson and George still saw some continued success, but nothing like their pre-cover days. Together, they saw only three more 1,000-yard seasons in 10 total years of playing.

To put it in perspective, George and Peterson combined for 11 1,000-yard seasons in 12 years of pre-Madden cover playing.

So what about Barkley?

That’s the tough question to answer. Barkley is coming off of arguably the best running back season ever, especially since he gets to flash some hardware now, too. 

It can definitely be argued that Barkley will have a much more consistent offensive line in his coming years with the Eagles than anyone else on this list, but even McCaffrey saw injury struggles behind a solid unit.

The point is, the curse may not be real like Benjamin suggests in his article, but here, the data doesn’t lie. The signing of AJ Dillon this offseason will mean Barkley sees a reduced role, and I’m more than happy with that.

Data (optional add, discretion of the editor)

Madden cover athlete running backs

• 2001 Eddie George – cursed
  • Led the league in touches (27 years old) -> sees noticeable decline
  • Led the league in touches from 1996-2000 
• 2003 Marshall Faulk – cursed
  • #9 in touches 2001-02 (28-29 years old) -> got hurt
  • #2 in touches from 1994-2002 (start of career til cover)
• 2007 Shaun Alexander – cursed
  • #4 in touches (28-29 years old) -> gets hurt
    • #8 in touches from 2005-2006
  • #4 in touches from 2000-2006 (start of career til cover)
• 2012 Peyton Hillis – cursed
  • #9 in touches (24 years old) -> got hurt
  • N/A
• 2014 Adrian Peterson – kind of cursed?
  • Led league in touches (30 years old) -> got hurt/ off the field suspension
  • Led league in touches from 2007-2015 (start of career til cover)
• 2024 Christian McCaffrey – cursed
  • Led league in touches (27 years old) -> got hurt
  • Top 5 in touches from 2017-2023 (start of career til cover)
• 2025 Saquon Barkley – ??
  • Led league in touches (27 years old) -> got hurt
  • Top 5 in touches from 2018-2024 (career)