After Bears Quarterback Caleb Williams Graces ‘Madden NFL 27’ Cover, Fans Debate If He Deserves It

The official Madden NFL account confirmed on X that Caleb Williams, quarterback of the Chicago Bears, will be on the cover of Madden NFL 27.

The official post reads: “The jump. The #Madden27 Cover. The future. Gridiron heroics earn @CALEBcsw Cover Athlete status!”

While Brian Urlacher was on the cover of NFL 2K3 and Roberto Garza was on the cover of Madden NFL 09: En Español, Williams will be the first Bears player to make the official Madden cover.

This is a huge honor, yet some question if Williams has earned it at this point in his career. Sure, he has one playoff win against the Green Bay Packers, and he has set the single-season passing yard record for the Bears. However, he has yet to win MVP, get a Pro Bowl selection, or win a Super Bowl.

Kole Noble from Yahoo! Sports argues:

“Other candidates who could have been the cover athlete for Madden could have included the reigning MVP Matthew Stafford, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl champion Jaxon Smith-Njigba, or even the reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett repping his new Los Angeles Rams colors. People could even argue for another quarterback from the 2024 draft class in Drake Maye, who at least led his team to a Super Bowl berth and is a two-time Pro Bowl selection.”

Noble also jokes that Bears fans can at least “stick it to Packers fans that Williams graced the cover of Madden before Aaron Rodgers.”

Furthermore, fans anxiously await to see if the “Madden Curse” will come to fruition. This superstition leads people to believe that the player on the Madden cover will have a “cursed” season.

Believers of this curse note that Lamar Jackson, the cover athlete for Madden NFL 21, regressed in passing yards and passing touchdowns the respective season, where the Ravens also lost in the Divisional Round. Madden NFL 22 saw Tom Brady with Patrick Mahomes on the cover, and that season saw the Bucs losing in the Divisional round, as well as the Chiefs losing the AFC Championship Game.

Josh Allen was on the cover of Madden NFL 24, and he was not selected to the Pro Bowl, nor did the Bills make it out of the Divisional Round. Christian McCaffrey missed 13 games due to injury after he was on the cover of Madden NFL 25. Finally, the Eagles lost in the first round, and Saquon Barkley regressed in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns last year, when the latter was on the cover of Madden NFL 26.

Noble comments that these seem “more like a case of correlation than causation” because “the only real cover athlete of the last five that suffered from a ‘cursed’ season was McCaffrey, who’s dealt with injuries his entire career. What happened to him in 2024 was mainly due to how much he was used the season prior to being the cover of Madden.”

The players mentioned still had relatively “successful seasons,” according to Noble, even if they weren’t “up to par with the legendary seasons they had the year prior.” Brady, Mahomes and Allen were still able to take their teams to the playoffs.

Hopefully, Bears fans shouldn’t have to worry too much. Williams doesn’t have to break the Bears’ single-season passing yard record for a second time.