Should Chicago Bears fan be worried about the Madden 27 cover?
Caleb Williams was announced as the Madden 27 cover athlete earlier this week, after an excellent sophomore season.
He becomes the 24th NFL player in history to feature on the front cover, a video game that initially had John Madden in 1988, featuring on his own until 1994 and alongside other athletes until 2000.
A brilliant sophomore year
Williams announced himself to the NFL world in 2025, after a difficult rookie campaign in 2024.
He recorded 3,942 passing yards, 27 touchdown and seven interceptions. Only three players in Bears history have thrown for more single season touchdowns and no one has recorded more passing yards than Williams did in 2025.
It was also a year of comebacks for the Bears, with seven fourth-quarter comebacks including the playoffs and two of these coming against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field.
There was the Week Six comeback win against the Washington Commanders that saw seven lead changes and two in the final two minutes and the two late touchdowns in Week 10 against the New York Giants to go from being 20-10 down to winning 24-20. However, nothing defined the Bears more than those two home victories against their fiercest rival.
In Week 16, the Bears scored 10 points in the final 1:59 of regulation and then would win the game in overtime thanks to Williams’ 46-yard throw to DJ Moore.
Williams’ finest moment came in the Wildcard Round as they once again beat the Packers in overtime, securing their first playoff victory in 15 years. They were trailing 21-3 at halftime and 21-6 at the start of the fourth quarter. What ended up transpiring was the largest postseason comeback in franchise history and fourth highest in any game.
Down 21-6 when the fourth quarter, Williams guided the Bears to adding 25 points to the scoreboard, whilst the Packers only added six. A late Moore touchdown securing the victory, Chicago going from 27-16 down with 3:32 remaining to clinching a 31-27 win.
Can the curse strike again?
Last year, Saquon Barkley was announced on the cover. This time last year, the Franchise Tag podcast looked back at the history of the Madden curse.
2024 saw a Super Bowl victory for Barkley, where he had 2,504 rushing touchdowns and 19 rushing touchdowns in the playoffs and postseason combined, the most anyone has ever achieved in a season.
However, despite recording over 1,000 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in 2025, Barkley and the Eagles failed to live up to the heights they achieved together a season prior as they bowed out in the playoffs at the Wildcard Round stage.
There have definitely been worse victims of the curse, such as Christian McCaffrey a year before, or the likes of Antonio Brown and Peyton Hillis, but Barkley was far from usual dynamic self.
With Williams on the cover, Bears fans are bound to be concerned. His ability to perform miracle comebacks on the field is not sustainable. Therefore, he will need to improve on the simple stuff and in 2025, JJ McCarthy (57.6%) was the only quarterback to have played more than 10 games to have a worse completion percentage than Williams’ 58.1.
Out of the 25 quarterbacks that qualified for the stat, Williams ranked 23rd for completion percentage for under 10 air yards (73.1) and last without pressure (64.2), to open targets (72.1) and wide-open targets (78.3).
Williams is on a great trajectory but is also someone that is far from the finished product. With a tougher schedule in 2026, this could lead to some difficulties for him and the Bears whilst he is on the cover of Madden 27.
Andy Davies