Madden 24 cover athlete prediction: Five deserving stars

With the NFL Draft taking place this week and the reveal of Madden 24 seemingly right around the corner, it’s time to predict who will be this year’s cover athlete. Last year’s game saw John Madden – whom which EA’s annual football franchise is named after — grace the cover of Madden 23 after the legendary coach and commentator passed away.

While John Madden was the face of the video game franchise for many years, it was in 2001 that EA shifted towards putting actual players on the cover of its game.

For Madden 22, EA had both Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes on the cover,  the first time a Madden game featured two cover athletes since 2010’s game which had both Pittsburgh Steelers DB Troy Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald. Madden 21 had Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, while Madden 20 had Kansas City star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. There seems to be a running trend of late in which quarterbacks are the face of Madden, which makes sense given that they are typically the face of their team.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some worthy cover athlete candidates for Madden NFL 24.

Tom Brady (retired)

Tom Brady announced his retirement, for the second time, back in February. This time, it sounds like he’s for real. I can’t think of a better way to pay tribute to his storied 23-year NFL career than by putting him on the cover of Madden one final time.

Winner of seven Super Bowls, Tom Brady also holds multiple NFL records including career  passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649). He’s also the only player to ever win more than five Super Bowls.

Tom Brady may be a polarizing figure for many NFL fans — probably those who are sick of him beating on his favorite team — but he’s far and away one of the best candidates to be on the cover of Madden 24. If he’s not on the standard edition of the game, then I fully expect Brady to be on the cover of some sort of special MVP or Legendary edition.

It would be cool to see Brady appear in both a Buccaneers and a Patriots jersey. Or better yet, maybe he un-retires and comes back on the cover in a Miami Dolphins jersey.