Lights Out

I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but the Lions' last three uniform sets all lasted less than a decade. It's nothing new and I would assume their futility on the field during that period has to do with it. They kept tinkering with their look to turn the page from a previous failed era.

I'm not saying I love every team's current uniforms, because I don't. But looking around the league, the only teams I don't think have a clear identity are the Cardinals, Saints and Commanders. The Texans were also on that list until today. The rest of the league, no matter how conservative or modern they are, at least have something that stands out, whether it's a color, a font, a striping pattern, etc. In 1996, we still had the Bills and Giants dressing exactly the same from the neck down and the Falcons trying to cosplay as the Raiders. Half the league had a basic black, silver or white helmet and unlike today, there were no alternate helmets that allowed teams to try something else. Merchandising has grown since then and forced teams to put a little more thought into it, not that they always succeed.

I guarantee there'd be people bitching about those, the Eagles, the Niners, and the Ravens if this was 1996. There'd probably even still be grumbling over the Falcons and Jets "going BFBS" and the Jaguars using such a "gimmicky" color like teal. The Panthers' uniforms would probably be compared to the Arena League. Of course, that would all look quaint compared to the meltdowns that would ensue over the Broncos' redesign the following year.

If the entire league rolled back to 1996, people would immediately start pining for 1986.

I like that horn helmet a lot. Always nice to see teams do something more inspired than the usual logo.

Seeing it laid out like this, I like how the new road jerseys have more orange than the old ones.

Not every team needs to look exactly the same as they did 50 years ago at all times. Especially for a team like the Broncos whose greatest success has come in modern uniforms.

Now that we've seen the whole thing, I like Denver's new uniforms except for the weird triangle motif. I hope they do a slight tweak as soon as they can and get rid of those.

These uniforms lasted almost as long as the ones they replaced. I'd say they did stand the test of time.

This looks so fake that I'm starting to doubt all their previous leaks. In addition to the wordmark issue that others have pointed out, the NOB is also sloppily misaligned. It looks like someone's first attempt in the Concepts board.

This is the exact same BS that Alex Spanos pulled in the '90s that got the ball rolling on the Chargers' eventual relocation. He demanded expensive renovations to the Q, got them, and then immediately started demanding a new stadium and threatening to move to LA. I hope this doesn't end in Cleveland losing the Browns again, but I won't be surprised at all if it does. The NFL's greed is out of control.

We've already seen the jerseys and none of them are as bad as those god-awful Commanders road jerseys.

The Texans' old uniforms were as boring, mediocre, and anonymous as their play on the field for 99% of the time they were in use. Frankly, the horn stripes from the new set are the kind of thing they should have done all along instead of recoloring the USC template from a catalog. The new uniforms might be "trying too hard" (I don't think so) but the old ones weren't trying at all. They finally have a real identity now. The only thing I don't like is neither of the home jerseys matching the road and alternate, but that's nothing we haven't already seen countless times in the NFL.

Erik Kramer's jersey looks almost exactly the same as what they just unveiled.

I don't like the star tacked on at the side, but I don't see a problem with the H itself. Whether this was intended or not, the double-struck blackletter font evokes the classic oil derrick logo without actually using it and pissing off the Titans. I'm not sure I love it as a helmet logo, but as a secondary logo, it's fine. It's better than this, which they never used anyway.