NFL 2023 Changes

[projectjohn]

12 hours ago, Cujo said:

Imagine if the Lions just did this and left them alone for more than 5 years

 

I wouldn't mind a blue pants and silver socks option, to be used only with the white tops; but otherwise, yes, please this. I have a bad feeling whatever they do is going to be downgrade from the current set, which isn't perfect but for the most part is good enough outside of the the white pants and color rush set, IMO.

[TenaciousG]

On 2/15/2023 at 3:20 PM, fouhy12 said:

 

This looks fantastic. I'm a huge fan. 

It’s so sad the NFL couldn’t have figured this out with the new Super Bowl branding from the start. Now we still have all those sad years of logos in the middle of great ones. 

[HOOVER]

11 hours ago, MJD7 said:

This is gonna be a hot take, but judging by this picture, switching to the ‘anthracite’ wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

 

That’s not to say that I’d endorse it, I just think Nike’s silver that the Seahawks & Panthers wear, for example, has gotten way too light, to the point where it almost looks white. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looked to me like the Patriots’ new silver pants were a shade or two darker than the Brady era ones. Those were a nice shade.)

 

 Don’t get me wrong, the anthracite has the opposite problem of being a bit too dark, but at least it’d be unmistakably gray. This is all assuming they don’t do something stupid like go with a matte-finish gray helmet, of course.

 

Overall, I can’t say I’m optimistic about a Lions redesign. I really think they’re just 1) a white outline on the home uniform, 2) dropping the white pants, & 3) changing anthracite to regular silver, away from having a pretty perfect set. I don’t see them going straight throwback, so another full redesign is pretty concerning.

 

 

 

Except what you're referring to as "Anthracite" is not Anthracite.

This is Anthracite:

 

 

This is Dark Steel Grey:

 

If you can't tell the difference, here are both used in the same uniform:

 

 

 

[HOOVER]

Personally, I feel the Lions would be best-served by reverting back to what most of call the "Barry Sanders Era" uniforms, or a hybrid of that uniform with the current set's striping and fixed font.  

 

So either this (preferably with today's Honolulu Blue):



OR - this, with perhaps updated fonts for wordmark, numbers, and NOB, and possibly White fill with Silver outline numbers:





I then think they should avoid the Blue helmet & Blue pants altogether and make White their Color Rush alternate, as the Bengals did:



Yeah, I know..."Icy White".  But I can't stand the images I've seen of Blue helmets and I despise the Blue pants.  And if they only had 1 set of White pants for their Color Rush uniform, that had striping similar to the above, it would never be worn with the standard Home & Away looks, satisfying many a complaint.

Finally, they'd keep the Thanksgiving uniforms as their Throwbacks.
 

That gives them:

1.  Iconic, but updated, Home & Away uniforms
2.  Modern Color Rush ALT (only time White pants are worn)
3.  Traditional Thanksgiving Throwbacks

Something for everyone that should satisfy most fans.  The franchise gets 3 helmets & 4 jerseys to sell.  Not sure how anyone could be unhappy with this.

[HOOVER]

12 hours ago, MJD7 said:

That’s not to say that I’d endorse it, I just think Nike’s silver that the Seahawks & Panthers wear, for example, has gotten way too light, to the point where it almost looks white. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looked to me like the Patriots’ new silver pants were a shade or two darker than the Brady era ones. Those were a nice shade.)

Patriots are still wearing the standard Silver/Grey.  You are correct in that it is light, which is most evident when the Seahawks wear their full Grey alternates or just Grey pants.  It's probably why Nike developed Dark Steel Grey 8 or so years ago.  I believe Colorado and Oregon were the first to wear it.  Colorado looks amazing when they wear it with their matching helmet.

What's confusing is that Nike sometimes calls Anthracite uniforms Dark Steel Grey, as they did with Pitt recently; the uniforms are obviously Anthracite, but because Pittsburgh was the "Steel City", I guess that didn't work as well for marketing.

[HOOVER]

Speaking of Colorado...their Dark Steel Grey helmets over Black jersey & Grey pants are just a beautiful, beautiful combination.  I still can't believe the Falcons didn't do this:



Imagine the Falcons logo on that helmet.  Red accents on the uniform.  Red outlines on the numbers.  Uniform would be too similar to the better football team in Georgia, I guess:

[HOOVER]

I want all of you, especially you monochrome uniform haters, to remember this image every time you suggest a Honolulu Blue Detroit Lions helmet...because this is what you'll get:

(How nice is that jersey, though?)

 

[HOOVER]

While I'm on a heater here, can we talk about how insane it is that New Orleans hasn't updated their uniforms to have the Color Rush Gold made into their primary Gold, and why a White helmet to go with their CR White uniforms isn't the alternate instead of the horrific Black helmet they unveiled last year?

 

Shout out to The Graphic God on Twitter who does these quality mock-ups.

Also, here's support for the argument that the NFL should allow Black helmet hardware & chinstraps:

 

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

22 hours ago, GoGreenGoWhite said:

Not sure how I feel about the Lions changing their uniforms. Their current set still feels new, and it was already an upgrade over the previous one. Really if they'd just remove the logo and initials from the sleeves and clean up the font they would have a uniform that'd have staying power. I can very easily see this change being a downgrade, I really don't understand why they feel the need to scrap their current set already.

 

Somewhat agree. I think it just needs tweaking and refining. 

[tBBP]

1 hour ago, Volt said:

Personally, I feel the Lions would be best-served by reverting back to what most of call the "Barry Sanders Era" uniforms, or a hybrid of that uniform with the current set's striping and fixed font.  

 

So either this (preferably with today's Honolulu Blue):



OR - this, with perhaps updated fonts for wordmark, numbers, and NOB, and possibly White fill with Silver outline numbers:

 

That half-italic number font has got to go...but other than that, the above concept, with Silver numbers stroked in white, is the way to go. I'd say they could stand to thin those stripes down to about the thickness of the tear-drop uni sets (read: the Stafford/Megatron years), at least on the helmet and pants, but other than that, yeah, ^that.

 

1 hour ago, Volt said:

I then think they should avoid the Blue helmet & Blue pants altogether and make White their Color Rush alternate, as the Bengals did:



Yeah, I know..."Icy White".  But I can't stand the images I've seen of Blue helmets and I despise the Blue pants.  And if they only had 1 set of White pants for their Color Rush uniform, that had striping similar to the above, it would never be worn with the standard Home & Away looks, satisfying many a complaint.

 

Setting aside the fact that those uniforms would be near-illegible on the field in a day game in direct sunlight (Shoot, probably under the lights as well), given the alternative, um, "alternate" options, yeah, I'd roll with this one too if they absolutely feel like a third uniform is necessary (which I'm sure they will, because and all that). 

 

1 hour ago, Volt said:

Finally, they'd keep the Thanksgiving uniforms as their Throwbacks.
 

 

 

And as Charles Barkley once famously declared: "anything else...would be uncivilized."

 

33 minutes ago, Volt said:

Speaking of Colorado...their Dark Steel Grey helmets over Black jersey & Grey pants are just a beautiful, beautiful combination.  I still can't believe the Falcons didn't do this:



Imagine the Falcons logo on that helmet.  Red accents on the uniform.  Red outlines on the numbers.  

 

Bro...WHAT?! For the longest time and as a big-time fan of the 2L2Q uniform era, I've wanted the Falcons to be a primarily black-and-white-with-red-accent (or black and silver w/ red trim, either/or) team. I don't know about a dark steel gray helmet (mainly because the Panthers, in their dame division, already do the silver/black/gray silver thing), but that color would definitely work for their pants. A bit too close to Tampa Bay? Sure—but then, black/red and red/gray (because that is NOT pewter) are already too close as it is, so its a wash, at best. 

 

15 minutes ago, Volt said:

While I'm on a heater here, can we talk about how insane it is that New Orleans hasn't updated their uniforms to have the Color Rush Gold made into their primary Gold, and why a White helmet to go with their CR White uniforms isn't the alternate instead of the horrific Black helmet they unveiled last year?

 

Shout out to The Graphic God on Twitter who does these quality mock-ups.

 

See, here it is again—if @BlueSky is still around here, he'll tell you, but for probably the past twelve or thirteen years I've PINED for the Saints to adopt this, or at least something similar, as their primary look.

 

[pepis21]

IMO Lions should only remove WCF and Lions wordmarks from their jerseys and that's it. No need to make completely revamp.

[HOOVER]

27 minutes ago, tBBP said:

 

That half-italic number font has got to go...

 

 

Amen on all of your comments, and this one I especially agree with.  If they wanted to keep the font, at least revert to a standard, non-italicized version of it, and for God's sakes, increase the size of the digits.   But I'd rather see something new, bold and thicker.  

Maybe take inspiration from the Ford Raptor grill and build a bolder number font from it:

 

[WSU151]

For 2023, the Vikings and Jets will have “tribute” helmets (not labeled alternate helmets), which means - as far as I can tell without seeing an actual image - they’ll be the current helmet finishes with throwback decals and facemasks (also likely means the black Jets helmet is sticking around at least one more year). 

 

I’m assuming that means 80s throwback jerseys for the Jets, and either 1970s or 1998 throwbacks (25 years since 15-1) for the Vikings.

[Carolingian Steamroller]

3 hours ago, Volt said:

 

Except what you're referring to as "Anthracite" is not Anthracite.

This is Anthracite:

 

 

This is Dark Steel Grey:

 

If you can't tell the difference, here are both used in the same uniform:

 

 

 

 

Something kinda similar to keep in mind:

 

 

Note the flat finish helmet.

[HOOVER]

1 hour ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

 

Something kinda similar to keep in mind:

 

 

Note the flat finish helmet.

Thanks for posting; I mentioned this before I think and now I'm going back on my thought.  This makes you realize that Light or even Medium Grey looks like primer when used as a flat helmet finish.   Dark Greys, like Anthracite, work well, but the light stuff just looks like a primed auto part, even with gloss or metallic decals.

I think Detroit is best represented with a finish that has some sort of metallic in it.  Anodized Silver may be worth looking at, but honestly what they have now works well.

[GFB]

4 hours ago, Volt said:

I want all of you, especially you monochrome uniform haters, to remember this image every time you suggest a Honolulu Blue Detroit Lions helmet...because this is what you'll get:

(How nice is that jersey, though?)

 

 

Nah, if the Lions do go with a blue helmet, they'll keep the decal blue (or go with the helmet shell color) because the Lions' creative team is ok with that:

 

 

If you want an off-the-board solution, I could see an oversized Boise State / Western Michigan-style one-color decal, more so than a grey/silver lion:

 

 

 

[AndrewMLind]

Been a while since I've been on the boards, but I want to change that moving forward. Couple notes:

 

5 hours ago, Volt said:

Except what you're referring to as "Anthracite" is not Anthracite.

 

The real issue is that both Nike and the Lions actually referred to it as "Dark Steel Gray (anthracite)" in their official press releases when these uniforms were unveiled. I even caught myself questioning it when writing the story on the front page, knowing how much darker actual anthracite is. 

  

On 2/13/2023 at 6:49 PM, WSU151 said:

From a reliable collectible site that has never let me down in the past:

 

Placeholders for "2023 Alternate helmets" are Broncos, Browns, Colts, Eagles, Lions. Maybe more to come (such as Seahawks and Bucs).  Have to assume Eagles is the throwback but no mention of that in the description.  Hoping the Broncos is the throwback and not a white or orange option. 

 

Can confirm this on my end, just as I wrote in the story before seeing this post today. The Titans could soon be added to this list, as well, but it hasn't been confirmed by my sources (or by the team, obviously) as they are "actively working" on having Oilers throwback uniforms in the "near future."

[GFB]

4 hours ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

 

Something kinda similar to keep in mind:

 

 

Note the flat finish helmet.

The current shade of Honolulu blue isn't dark or deep enough to make this work. Memphis' royal blue is just barely dark enough to act as the dark shade, grey acts as the mid tone, and white is the highlight color...  If the Lions were to try this with the current shade of Honolulu blue, they would run into the same issues that the Colorado Avalanche have after eliminating black.

 

With that being said, I wouldn't be opposed to darkening the blue a shade or two to something a little closer to the 70s or 80s shade where it was more of a stock royal blue:

 

 

for me, the 90s got a little too light and into the Carolina blue range for my liking:

 

 

 

[HOOVER]

20 minutes ago, GFB said:

The current shade of Honolulu blue isn't dark or deep enough to make this work. Memphis' royal blue is just barely dark enough to act as the dark shade, grey acts as the mid tone, and white is the highlight color... 

 

Ah, my brother from another mother.   Words can't express how I feel when I see someone else who gets it.  

[Sport]

20 hours ago, Cujo said:

Imagine if the Lions just did this and left them alone for more than 5 years

 

 

Whoever made this concept is very smart and likely very handsome.