Saquon Barkley hurdled his way onto the Madden cover.
Eagles fans better hope that the Madden curse doesn’t find its way to their superstar running back.
The history of the Madden curse isn’t straightforward, but there’s some real correlation between RBs on the cover and missing time in the following season.
Christian McCaffrey was the most recent back on the cover, just last year. And then CMC played just four games as he battled multiple injuries.
Before that, it was Barry Sanders on a throwback cover in 2013, so that one doesn’t really count.
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Peyton Hillis ahead of the 2011 season, and Shaun Alexander ahead of the 2006 season, both played 10 games the season after they were on the Madden cover.
The history is friendlier before that. Marshall Faulk sat out just two games in 2002 after making the cover, and Eddie George didn’t miss a single game in 2000 after his time on the Madden game.
Barkley was incredibly durable with a huge, incredible workload last season for the Eagles en route to 2,000 yards and a Super Bowl.
In his time with the Giants, Barkley had started to develop a reputation as being a bit brittle, but he’s clearly a physical specimen who works hard to be in top condition.
The Eagles brought in former Packers running back A.J. Dillon this offseason, maybe the only RB in the league with bigger quads than Saquon. But Dillon is nothing more than a middling backup at this stage of his career, so Philadelphia needs Barkley to stay healthy.
Running back health is always risky, Madden cover or no Madden cover. But Barkley will be trying to buck the cover curse trend when he takes the field this fall.
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