Honestly that would be a very ballzy move, and could only prove successful if Madden is another huge disappointment to hundreds of thousands of fans.
The problem with that scenario is people are used to buying certain sports games at certain times. I'm sure we've all felt those tugs in June just waiting for our first football fix, sitting around in February looking forward to when the baseball games will come out or realizing the arrival of fall means the NBA, NHL and FIFA being right around the corner.
Not having your game available in that general time frame, to me, puts you at a disadvantage.
Plus if you wait a month or two to release, you're competing against the NBA, College Hoops, NHL games plus FIFA. Huge football fans might be willing to try another game, but a lot of folks are ready to move onto another sport.
(You kind of see this with PES this year. it was released months after FIFA and as a result didn't get a lot of buzz. Part of the reason could have been what's been seen as a subpar offering, but leading up to it there wasn't near the same kind of anticipation FIFA had in the fall - in part because people who needed a soccer fix got it with FIFA).