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The NFL season is finally upon us once again! It’s been quite the offseason for the general football public. We had the Super Bowl runner-up coach involved in a cheating scandal with a female reporter, coming at the cost of her job; the Rams signed and traded for seemingly every big-name free agent, and somehow convinced Aaron Donald to un-retire after 2 years; rookies went back to college after playing in the preseason; and of course, The Wedding of the Century (I wonder if Travis had Patrick Mahomes as one of his groomsmen).
It was also an incredibly exciting offseason for the Uni-verse as well. There were five teams that unveiled new primary uniforms since the Super Bowl, with varying degrees of updates. We also had 3 new alternate uniforms between two teams (although one of them should never have been released). And of course, the newest edition of the Rivalries program for the NFC North and AFC South dropped just a few weeks ago.
For as good (and bad) as some of these threads looked in promo pictures, we’ve been waiting to see them on the field. We can judge photos all we want, but seeing uniforms on-field is just different, as that’s truly what makes or breaks a uniform.
The season kicked off on Wednesday night in Seattle with a Super Bowl rematch, albeit not a uniform rematch.
Seahawks 13, Patriots 10
After these teams combined for the first Mono-Bowl (both teams wearing a single color) in Super Bowl history, the Patriots decided to switch it up for the Wednesday Night Week 1. New England wore their blue britches, which could’ve been a disaster had they worn blue socks as well. Luckily for us, they broke up the monotony by wearing white socks (or leg sleeves, as Mack Hollins displays above).
Just like in the Super Bowl, the game started under daylight and got progressively darker as the sun went down. Seattle’s mono-navy and green accents start to pop that much more under the lights, (which is coincidentally when Drake Maye began to shut down). The Pacific northwest sky was gorgeous, and the game looked good, even if there was a lot of navy.
New England’s rebrand does make their silver helmet stand out, especially when they don’t wear their silver pants. There’s almost no silver in the rest of their uniform now, so it’ll be interesting to see if the team transitions away from silver entirely in future rebrands.
On a separate note; the Seahawks’ new owners confirmed before this game that the white throwbacks will be entering the uniform rotation in 2027, which will be a great compliment to their current throwback threads. The fans are very excited to see this happen, but it’s also juxtaposed against the success the team has had in this current uniform iteration. As mentioned in the past, it’s hard to abandon a successful uniform template, especially so soon after the team just won the Super Bowl. I can foresee the new owners wanting to make their own mark and go back to the throwbacks quickly, but it will be bittersweet to eventually see these threads get retired.
Grade: Quite Solid
49ers 27, Rams 7
The first NFL game in Australia was an interesting sight for multiple reasons. First of all, to make the time zones work for the US-based viewing audience, the NFL had to start the game at 10 AM local time in Melbourne. This meant that we had early-morning sun to start the game, which was a noticeably different vibe than normal. The stadium they played in, Melbourne Cricket Ground, is a multi-purpose venue that (as the name suggests) was built for cricket, back in 1853(!). That means that the views from TV were very different than a normal NFL stadium.
On the uniform front, we almost had a perfect matchup. The Rams showed off their new and improved home jerseys, with the stupid gradient numbers removed. The number is now a solid sol color, which looks SO much better. LA knew they needed to show off their Sunday Best, and they did the job very well.
San Francisco was so close to making this an Absolutely Gorgeous matchup, but the team unfortunately decided to wear white socks instead of red. In the bright early-morning sun, the white was far too bright, and washed out the Niners entire uniform. As we know, Nike doesn’t make metallic-looking uniform elements, which does a disservice to teams such as the 49ers. Their “gold” pants are just straight-up tan. Tan pants need a heavier color to ground the whole look, especially on such a sunny day. Definitely an unfortunate sock choice, but that seems to be the way the league is going nowadays…
Grade: Quite Solid (would have been Absolutely Gorgeous with Niners in red socks)
Bengals 33, Buccaneers 27
Much to my delight, the Bengals continued their “Open in Orange” tradition, wearing orange jerseys for their home opener in each of the past three seasons. This is my favorite look for Cincinnati. While it’s a lot of orange, the white pants provide great balance to the uniform, and the pants stripes look incredible against the jersey. The team has the ability to mix and match any of their orange, black, and white uniform elements, and almost all of them look great together.
The Bucs wore their standard pewter/white/pewter/black away uniforms, which looked great under the bright Cincinnati sun. Tampa Bay’s threads can look dim and dismal if it’s a bad weather day, especially at home in Florida, but their red accents popped very well this week, and the dark elements contrasted well against the bright orange of the Bengals.
Grade: Absolutely Gorgeous
Bills 36, Texans 31
In one of the bigger matchups of the early window, the Bills and Texans gave us a double-mono matchup, much to my chagrin. Just like the Bengals have an opening day tradition, the Texans also have a whiteout opening day, wearing mono-white for their first home game since 2021. Unlike Cincinnati, however, Houston’s mono-white threads is not a great look. Their 2024 uniform overhaul was a big swing, but largely a miss, especially when it comes to their all white threads.
Buffalo matched the mono madness, going with an all-blue look to counter Houston. While the Bills look better with their mono looks than the Texans by virtue of a solid uniform template on its own, this is one of their worst combinations. At least the teams had opposite helmets (Buffalo in white, Houston in navy) to break up the visuals, but there’s only so much each team can do.
Grade: Groady
Steelers 20, Falcons 13
A team that released brand-new uniforms this offseason was the Falcons. Whereas the Rams just updated a few things, Atlanta completely changed it up. The team's new away threads were showcased on Sunday, where the mono-white threads were overwhelmingly bright in sunny Pittsburgh. The red numbers and pants stripes were good additions, especially compared to the atrocious set the Falcons previously had, but it was still too much white. Solid white socks are too boring for this team. Red socks (which they haven’t announced, but they should) would do wonders to improve their look.
The Steelers, for their part, looked great as always in their Sunday Best. It’s always great to see a classic team wearing their traditional set, especially in Week 1. The black and yellow popped very well against the fairly boring blank slate of Atlanta.
Grade: Meh
Bears 59, Panthers 37
The Panthers decided to not only wear alternate jerseys for their first game of the season, but an alternate helmet as well. Unfortunately, against another fairly dark team in the Bears, the black/blue/black/black look just didn’t work. Carolina’s process blue jerseys look great, but the rest of the elements in black make it too dim. The silver accents work great with the Process Blue color, and they should stick with that color scheme.
Just like the Steelers, the Bears looked great with their standard away uniforms, but unfortunately, the Panthers were far too dark to make this a good uniform matchup. It’s disappointing that the Chicago players can’t get their sock stripes right, but hey, at least they have stripes at all.
Grade: Try Again (on the Panthers side only)
Lions 31, Saints 30
Ugh. We had a double yoga pants matchup in Detroit, which is just a travesty when we know that both of these teams have better britches options. The Lions continued their preferred mono-blue look at home. It’s so painful, especially since they wore their silver pants with these blue jerseys for the entire preseason. It’s their Sunday Best! Just look at how good these threads are:
Not to be outdone, the Saints aren’t any better. New Orleans has continued to wear these black yoga pants as their primary away look since around 2012. It’s another bad look, as the team also has incredible gold (tan) pants they can wear, which fits the team’s identity much better than black pants. Just like Detroit, at least the gold britches have a stripe down the leg.
Both teams continue to choose bad outfits, and it didn’t help that this game was indoors in a fairly dim Ford Field. Just an overall blah game.
Grade: Groady
Ravens 41, Colts 23
Another team that unveiled brand-new uniforms this offseason was the Ravens. Their first uniform combination was a fairly similar one to their previous set, with a simple black/white/black/white color scheme. However, the details seemed less vibrant than what the team’s designers were hoping for.
As you can see in the photo above, the collar has some “raven feathers” design. We also saw the new pants stripe for the first time in the regular season, which was unremarkable at best. There definitely seemed to be something… missing from the uniform. Not having the gold outline on the numbers really seems like a net negative from the previous uniform set. There’s not a definitive outline to those numbers anymore, as it’s just a shiny/iridescent purple that doesn’t pop whatsoever on the broadcast. It’s cool up close, but it’s way too hard to see from afar.
Overall, while they seem to be a downgrade from the previous uniform set, they’re not bad in and of themselves. I liked the stark black/white contrast, and while it wasn’t the most obvious, the stripes on the pants meant that the team is not going to wear yoga pants again.
Indianapolis looked great in their Sunday Best, and their white/blue/white/blue provided a great opposing scheme to the black and white checkerboard of Baltimore. The Colts have a great classic uniform, and they should stick with it as much as possible.
Grade: Quite Solid
Jaguars 34, Browns 10
In another bright and sunny matchup, the Jaguars and Browns made sure to not stand out in any way possible. Jacksonville went with their mono-white below the waist look, and Cleveland wore white below the neck. It wasn’t a bad look for either team, but it was definitely a lesser uniform combination than we could’ve had.
This game ended seemingly a whole quarter before most of the other early games, so I’ll end this review earlier than the others as well.
Grade: Good-ish
Jets 23, Titans 10
In the final early game of the weekend, the Titans got to show us their brand-new uniforms in regular season play, and did so against the Jets’ Sunday Best. Each team looked incredible under the bright sun in Nashville, and while the game itself may not have been exciting, New York’s shiny green domes complimented the Titans’ light blues very well.
As much as I discussed how little the Titans rebrand makes sense in the context of the team itself, I do really like the uniforms on their own. Yes, the red accents may not be seen from the broadcast itself, but the color scheme works very well. Having the blue stripe down the pants was a great choice, and the blue socks work wonders to pull this look together.
Not to be outdone, the Jets also looked magnificent in their own right. Just like the Ravens and Colts, New York contrasted the white/blue/white/blue of Tennessee with their own green/white/green/white. It fit perfectly, and the almost metallic green of their helmet complimented the rest of the uniform very beautifully. Well done.
Grade: Absolutely Gorgeous
Cardinals 26, Chargers 14
FAR too much white. As much as I dislike the Cardinals uniforms, their mono-whites aren’t nearly as bad as their mono-reds, as long as they play against a mostly non white team. However, thanks to the Chargers deciding to wear a lesser uniform option, this game fell far below its potential.
It didn’t even need to be that much different. All Los Angeles needed to do was to wear their Sunday Best, which is this exact uniform just with yellow pants. White pants for the Chargers always seem to be a worse choice than yellow, and especially in a game like this. Too much missed potential, especially for LA at home when they can decide what to wear… and a loss to the team that could be in contention for the #1 overall pick next year. Yikes.
Grade: Try Again (c’mon Chargers; wear your yellow pants!)
Raiders 27, Dolphins 13
The game between two teams most pundits have as the bottom of the league actually ended up being a very nice-looking uniform matchup, as the Dolphins broke out a shockingly brand-new uniform combination. Miami usually wears mono-white early in the season, but if they don’t, they have almost always worn white/white/aqua/aqua or mono white with aqua socks. Not once have they ever broken out aqua pants with white socks like this. It’s a great look, and I’m hopeful that this means the team will continue with this look down the road.
For their part, the Raiders looked great with their Sunday Best silver and blacks. It’s quite the stark difference vs the candy-esque aqua color of Miami, but it worked very well. Vegas always needs bright colors to contrast their fairly dim color scheme, especially during day games, so it was the perfect combination.
Grade: Absolutely Gorgeous
Vikings 39, Packers 22
For the second year in a row, the Vikings wore their throwbacks in their first home game of the season. There was only so good the matchup could be against the Falcons of last year, but the Packers provided a great uniform opponent this year. Minnesota’s throwbacks look incredible, and they should 100% go back to these threads full time. There’s nothing special about their current primary threads, and especially compared to these throwbacks, the primaries just look bad.
Unfortunately, the Packers in white socks are disappointing. Just like the 49ers, there’s no good reason to go with white socks for a classic team such as Green Bay. With Minnesota’s throwbacks incorporating that tiniest bit more yellow, the Packers needed to balance it out with green socks. Otherwise, it was a great matchup.
Grade: Quite Solid (Green Bay needed green socks)
Eagles 24, Commanders 22
After all of the hype of the Commanders going back to the Redskins-era uniforms, the regular season unveiling landed with a bit of a dud. The team decided to go with a mono-white below the neck look, which is an objectively worse look than either of the yellow or burgundy pants. While Washington still has socks and pants stripes, the mono look is really disappointing. However, it’s still much better than their previous set, so I can’t complain too much.
For Philadelphia, their green/green/white/white threads have become synonymous with success. I’d love to see green socks to break up the mono-white below the waist look, but the green and white work better together than a lot of other teams.
Grade: Good-ish
Cowboys, Giants
These teams always look good matched up together. Each team’s blue complements the other’s look perfectly, and while there’s obviously a lot of blue, it just works. Thanks to Dallas almost always wearing white in this matchup, regardless of where the game is played, this look has become a time-tested classic.
New York’s slight bit of red in these uniforms provides the perfect amount of pop. The fact that this is under the bright lights of MetLife Stadium makes it that much better. Even if these teams are bad, it always feels like a big game when it’s a primetime matchup.
Grade: Absolutely Gorgeous
And we’re off! Week 1 (almost) in the books. I missed this day. Cherish it, because it’ll be early December before we know it. Some interesting aesthetic decisions to start this season; there were a few good ones, but others stumbled coming out of preseason (looking at you, Lions and Saints).
What’re your thoughts? Who won Week 1 in the Uni-verse? Did your favorite team dress their Sunday Best, or did they underdeliver for the occasion? Did your opinions change regarding the teams that unveiled new looks over the offseason now that you saw them on the field?
As always, I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment down below, and make sure to like and subscribe to see more. You’ll have a full season of arbitrations coming up!
See y’all next week!
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