Saquon Barkley Taking A Leap With The Madden Curse
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Underdog, Saquon Barkley's appearance on Madden '26 cover, fantasy rankings and ADP, and Ravens preview.
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Underdog:
Can you really consider yourself a true fantasy footballer if you don’t worry about virtually every piece of player-related news?
I’d argue that you can’t.
With that said, let’s see if we should hit the panic button on two updates from yesterday …
☠️ Can Saquon Barkley survive the Madden curse? Barkley will officially be on the cover of Madden ‘26 with a sick photo that immortalizes his infamous hurdle. Of course, the real question is whether this mushes an encore to his storybook season in 2024.
Curse skeptics might point to a string of curse-free picks from 2020 to 2023, but those of us with voodoo dolls will be quick to point out that none of those players were RBs—over the last decade, CMC and Barkley are the only two RBs to earn the cover.
In 2023, CMC led the league in touches with 339, got the cover, and then was cursed …
In 2024, Barkley led the league in touches with 378, got the cover, and then was …???
I’ll be forwarding this very statistically significant data trend to our projections team at Fantasy Life and imploring them to act accordingly.
So should we be worried about the Lions’ running game? Eh, probably not. I’m old enough to remember when the Eagles’ run game (and tush push) were going to flop after Jason Kelce’s retirement … and then they were so dominant that they landed their RB on the cover of Madden.
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Buzz Index: Fantasy Life Projections for 5 Trending RBs
One of our favorite preseason hacks is checking the “Most Viewed” players data on all the fantasy platforms. Today it’s CBS, where the Top 5 “Most Viewed” running backs are:
Why yes, we do have a pretty set of graphics we can use, but we like the gritty feel of just presenting the CBS page as is! Get in the mindset, people!!
We thought it would be fun to take these names and match them to our Fantasy Life projections, which are constantly being tinkered with and updated. So please enjoy a look behind the curtain …
Go check out where Fantasy Life has them ranked. Or see our up-to-date ADP. Here’s a little “choose your own adventure” below with the fabled “double button.” Choose wisely …👇
The quandary is real. Do you take the elite quarterback like Lamar Jackson and hope you strike gold in the ensuing rounds with a WR or RB? Or do you pass the stud dual-threat QBs in favor of bolstering your WR core with Mike Evans or Davante Adams in Round 3? These questions will keep perplexing fantasy managers for the next several months.
Ian Hartitz tackles this question in the Baltimore Ravens 2025 Team Preview, showing that Lamar has been consistently one of the elite QBs for fantasy over the past several seasons. The ageless wonder Derrick Henry also gets the spotlight for his sustained greatness? Are you going to fade the future Hall of Famer coming off a 1,921-yard season? The decision is yours. ⬇️
