Saquon Barkley is on the cover of Madden NFL 26

Hardly a surprise since the Philadelphia Eagles running back was arguably the main character of the 2025 NFL season.

Video game news: reigning Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley is featured on the cover of Madden NFL 26, according to an official announcement.

Here’s what the standard version looks like:

And here’s the deluxe edition:

Hardly shocking to see that Barkley’s incredible reverse hurdle was chosen as the feature image. Especially after Madden went out of their way to add his move to their game in the middle of last season.

After producing arguably the best running back season in NFL history, Barkley has been no stranger to the spotlight this offseason. He was a no-brainer choice for this year’s Madden cover.

Barkley is the first Philadelphia Eagles player on the Madden cover in nearly 20 years; the last one was Donovan McNabb in 2006.

Some will enjoy Barkley being featured on the cover, especially as a nod to the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX victory season. Others may be more wary of “Madden Curse,” which had seemingly went away before discussion of its’ return emerged with Christian McCaffrey having a disastrous 2024 season.

As one would expect, Barkley is embracing it:

And there’s apparently some promotional stuff going on in South Philly in relation to the news: