Predicting Madden 22 cover athlete based on EA Sports' tease with Peyton Hillis

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Jordan Heck
• 4 min read
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EA Sports released a teaser for the Madden 22 cover athlete, and it has us wondering just who it will be.

The teaser trailer featured former cover athlete Peyton Hillis sitting in a barn. The video showed a pair of goats and had Hillis utter the words, "They did it again."

This teaser has led to some speculation as to what all of these clues mean. We have a few ideas, which we'll break down below.

Madden 22 cover athlete: Tom Brady?

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The biggest theory running after the teaser is that Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady will grace the cover of Madden 22. Brady was my bold prediction candidate for the cover athlete back in February, and what I said then still holds true.

Brady has already been on the cover of Madden, but that's exactly why he's a great candidate for Madden 22. He's with a different team, so the cover will have a new look. And he just won a Super Bowl, so it makes sense why he's done enough to earn the cover.

But it also makes sense with Madden teaser trailer. The video features goats, and Brady is oftern considered the GOAT (greatest of all time) considering just how much success he's had in the league. And Hillis saying "they did it again" would allude to Brady making the cover twice.

Madden 22 cover athlete: Derrick Henry?

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We have a few reasons to assume Derrick Henry could be the Madden 22 cover athlete. First of all, there was a leak by GameStop in March that showed Henry on the cover in a similar fashion as the Madden 21 look. It seems odd someone would go through the trouble of creating a fake Madden 22 cover just to try and drive up preorder sales several months before the game is even released.

But taking clues from the trailer, it can be interpreted that Hillis "they did it again" comment refers to Madden putting another running back on the cover. Henry would be the first active running back on the cover since Hillis, so that's why it would make sense to include the former NFL running back in the teaser.

The only thing that trips me up about this theory is featuring the goats.

Madden 22 cover athlete: Dual athletes?

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EA Sports famously made Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald as co-cover athletes on Madden 10, the first time the franchise featured more than one player on the cover. The idea behind this theory is the fact that the teaser had two goats in the video, and EA Sports used two goats in their tweet. Hillis' "they did it again" comment would also fit here as it could hint at EA Sports doing another dual athlete cover.

I may be reading too much into it, but it appeared as if one of the goats was smaller in the video, perhaps hinting to a baby goat. Running with this theory we could assume one of the co-cover athletes would be Tom Brady, but then who would the other be? Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson have already made the cover in the last two years, so it seems they'd be out of the running. But a Brady and Mahomes cover seems to make sense with this context.

If we remove the baby goat concept and just accept this as two goats, then I could see a Brady and Aaron Rodgers cover. I listed Rodgers as my top prediction candidate based on his MVP season in 2020. Brady and Rodgers as co-GOATs makes plenty of sense.

Madden 22 cover athlete teaser: Reaction

Tom Brady, Derrick Henry and dual athletes are the best guesses I have at the cover. Most of the Twitter reaction seems to think the cover will feature Brady and Mahomes.

 

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Jordan Heck
nfl
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