Three of the four teams in the AFC East — the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots — have no uniform changes for the 2024 NFL Season. But that’s OK, because the New York Jets make up for the entire division, with new primary, alternate and throwback uniforms. Read on for more!
This is the first of an eight-part series (one for each NFL Division) covering all the uniform news for the 2024 season.
Buffalo Bills
The Bills have no announced uniform changes for 2024. In fact, the Bills have not released any kind of jersey schedule (although not all clubs do), but they are expected to wear their blues at home and whites on the road.
The team has a red Color Rush uniform they will likely wear at least once (last year they only wore it one time).
The Bills still technically have a throwback uniform featuring the standing red buffalo on the helmet as an option, but they have not worn them since the 2021 season.
After teasing a red alternate helmet in 2022, and then a blue helmet last year during scrimmages, this year Josh Allen teased a black helmet. None of these are alternates, and the Bills will wear white shells all season long.
There have been rumors about the Bills getting either new uniforms or an alternate helmet in 2025, but nothing is confirmed.
Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins have no announced uniform changes for 2024.
The team will wear both their throwback uniforms once this season. They will don their aqua throwbacks in Week 2 (September 12) as they face the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football. Then, they’ll sport their classic white throwbacks two months later on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, when they face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in Week 13.
Although not Dolphins uniform news, it’s rumored MLS squad Inter Miami will introduce a Dolphins-inspired uniform in aqua and orange. The kit is said to look like this.
And for everyone who says of the throwbacks, “Just make those permanent!” there is yet again bad news. Dolphins owner Steven Ross continues to oppose such a move, and the throwbacks will remain throwbacks for yet another year.
New England Patriots
The Patriots have no announced uniform changes this season.
The team continues to dabble with silver/gray pants (as seen above). They debuted them in 2022, wearing them once in a MNF loss, and wore them twice last year, once in a Week 7 win, and then again in a Week 8 loss. Fans and people with eyes continue to hope the team will wear them again (and with more frequency) in 2024. Not that pre-season means anything, but the Pats have only worn their blue pants so far.
Although nothing has as yet been confirmed, the (very reliable) Gridiron Uniform Database lists the Patriots as wearing their throwback uniforms twice. Once in Week 11 (November 17) against the LA Rams, and again two weeks later in Week 13 (December 1) against the Colts. There is nothing on the Patriots website regarding throwback dates for 2024. The throwbacks, of course, feature “Pat Patriot” on a white helmet, with a red jersey and white pants.
There were some rumors over the summer that the Patriots might wear a Flying Elvis throwback, although those appear to have been just that: rumors.
It’s hard to believe, but the Patriots are on their fifth year for this version of their Flying Elvis uniforms, so, in theory, the team could get new uniforms in 2025. While much of the decline in play can be attributed to Tom Brady leaving the team just before the Patriots introduced their new uniforms (though he did wear a very similar uniform when the Pats had a Color Rush uniform), fans have almost universally panned the current uniform set. So perhaps this will be its final season.
New York Jets
The big uniform news for the AFC east is the New York Jets, who have an entire new set of uniforms for the season, including a special throwback they’ll wear once. As you can see in the above photo, the team is basically throwing back to their “New York Sack Exchange” days. And they’ll have more options than they did when they previously wore this set.
In addition to the green jersey, white jersey and white pants they’ll hopefully wear the most, they will also have a set of green pants. And, because it’s the Jets, they’ll also have a full BFBS uniform as an alternate.
You can read much more about these new uniforms here.
But wait! That’s not all.
In addition to the three new uniforms, the Jets are also going to be wearing their “Super Bowl III” uniforms as a throwback for one game.
They’ll wear this uniform on October 14 (Week 6). This is a big Monday Night Football matchup against division rival Buffalo.
You can read much more about this new uniform here.
The team has also announced they will wear their all black uniforms on Hallowe’en Night (Week 9), in a Thursday Night Football primetime matchup against the Houston Texans.
Having seen the new Jets primary unis on the field, I can say two things:
1. The green-over-white home combo looks utterly frickin’ awesome. I want to see this in every non-throwback, non-BFBS home game; no white at home this year (except the throwback game). In fact these uniforms look so good, not least because of that absolutely gorgeous shade of green, that it heightens the desire for a green-jersey throwback next year, either to replace the BFBS or an NFL rule change allowing home and road versions of throwback uniforms in addition to “Color Rush” (i.e., five jerseys total).
2. I think the tweaked “JETS” wordmark, compared to the original, is a wash; I like the condensed lettering, and I like that it’s placed a little higher on the helmet than it was in the ’80s, but I think the jet-plane silhouette on the old one was better (viz., looked more like a jet plane).
Speaking of which, check out this video containing video footage of the 1989 Jets, the last year before the BFBS infection and the last year they tended to wear white at home in that design. Note the smorgasbord of NOB fonts, and at 3:37 there’s a great shot of Ken O’Brien in a green jersey with his NOB missing the apostrophe (“OBRIEN”): link
Also, at 5:35, there’s a shot of offensive lineman Reggie McElroy, #68, missing the “6” on the back of his helmet.
A minor detail on the uniform but a major irritant for me. I feel the uniform would look better without the minor navy blue trim on numbers and stripes. It is unnecessary and busy.
I enjoyed seeing the Bills’ redesign when the white helmet was introduced. Mainly because the uniform looked so much better than the prior monstrosity. But I am one of those guys. Give me the red helmets back as primary! The uniforms they won 4 straight AFC titles with would be my preferred primary uniform.
If the Pats would dump the blue over blue combo the AFC East would be in contention for my favorite division uni-wise.
Why would Buffalo consider new uniforms next year?!? They have an amazing set right now. Top 10 in the league.
Also, as I Jets fan I don’t much care for the new uniforms. They’re boring and have a culture of losing behind them. The wide pant stripe should be changed to match the shoulder stripe and the collar on the neck is ridiculously wide.
I’ve always been outspoken in my preference for the Namath/Parcells design, even during the ’80s, but I’m not sure the whole “culture of losing” applies to this uniform. The team improved from 3-13 in 1977 to 8-8 when the design was adopted in ’78, and except for a 4-12 hiccup in 1980 they went .500 or better each year from ’78-82, made the playoffs in back-to-back years twice (’81-82 and ’85-86), and won three playoff games in the process. The last three years of it weren’t great but they did go 8-7-1 in 1988; ultimately, they had only two really dreadful seasons in this design, ’80 and ’89 (also 4-12).
I would add that a lot of great and/or fondly-remembered Jets players wore this uniform: Klecko, Lyons, Gastineau, Buttle, Mehl, Walker, Toon, McNeil, O’Brien, Shuler, Powell, Fields, Harper, Leahy, Jennings, and more, many of whom played most if not all of their careers in green and white.
Now, the black-trimmed version used from 1990-97, that’s a different story…..
Well, truth is, the Jets franchise has a culture of losing, lol. I grew up with those 80’s teams. Al Toon was my favorite. But they won nothing. All those good players and zero SB appearances while being upstaged by their city brother. The early Parcells-era set was great before the green started changing shades.
As frustrated as I sometimes get with this franchise, and as bad as they’ve been for some stretches, I don’t equate a lack of championships (in and of itself) with a “culture of losing,” certainly not with four playoff appearances and seven winning seasons over a twelve-year span. But, YMMV.
Changes by by Bills may not necessarily mean brand new look, but an additional set or too like Red helmet additions or city addition add ons
If only the Pats would pair their silver pants with the white jerseys. Then, the stripes would match! :)
Yes that would be beautiful.
The Pats havent gone silver-white-silver since the giant shoulder Elvises days (last in 1999) link
Supposedly, the Patriots navy-over-navy uniforms have become the standard because they’re trying to move away from the navy-over-silver look of the Brady era. This is not the Brady/Belichick team, this is Mayo’s team, and players now want the full navy look since many of them wore all-one-color sets in college.
Nice write-up Phil!
BUF: Glad they are staying the course…though I’d love to see the CR go away (the Bills are a blue team) and replaced with a Kelly-era set…though the 84-86 helmet was superior, I suspect that won’t happen. Sigh.
MIA: the Dolphins have got it right, minimizing the use of their throwbacks…I’ll consider their wearing of the “classic white” on Thanksgiving night a birthday gift to me.
NE: Time to Flying Elvis to exit the main stage (Celebrate the SB anniversaries with those) and return to red and Pat. Hopefully futility won’t follow suit.
NYJ: Darn near perfect and about darn time! Hope the green pants are for demonstration purposes only. “… they will wear their all black uniforms on Hallowe’en Night…against the Houston Texans” – a very frightening uni matchup awaits!
1-the Inter Miami uni has so much potential but why are the sleeve color blocks shiny? Also the giant cruise line ad on the front makes these look like the unis of the deck crew of said crusie ship. Re the dolphins: PLEASE do an alternate aqua helmet with a single white stripe down the center and a script D, Dolphins, or Miami wordmark on the side.
2-the Pats look fantastic in silver/navy/navy. I don’t need them to find reasons for more silver pants with this current set. Please put Pat Patriot back on the shelf along with any flying Elvis era unis prior to the current set.
3-the Bills set is awfully tired and the sleeve stripe situation has perhaps aged the worst of any team with modern sleeve tailoring. I would love it if the helmet logo was revised to be somewhere between the current and the standing buffalo. The “rearing” buffalo design smacks of “we just learned how to make shapes in photoshop” and the laser beam isn’t helping anything. I’d like to see a buffalo in the same pose but rendered in red and in the same artistic style of the standing buffalo (essentially a more realistic silhouette). From there maybe try something new. The jets “pointy things” design is now available, and it would work well as an homage to the laser beam buffalo motif they’ve had for so long.
4-the jets return to this boring bold stripe set is a tragedy. The “throwbacks” they will wear have always been the jets look to me. The plain old stripes on the sleeves is generic and not even well executed from a generic standpoint. The set they just ditched was actually cool minus the black stuff. All they needed to do was use this current helmet logo which would actually match the “pointy things” uni motif and it would have been perfect. By the way: to all the people lamenting the jets use of black with the last set, here you go. They kept the BFBS but made it boring.
Steven Ross will never be MY DOLPHINS OWNER! I’m a Joe Robbie moderated by the soothing influence of Danny Thomas guy. Bring back the real uniforms!!!
The current Patriots uniforms would be fine if they’d not wear mono navy all the time. With the silver pants they look great. The Pat Patriot uniforms are superior but I doubt they’ll go back to those full time.
I wish teams would stop having that giant toilet seat ring around their necks.
Preach! It looks so odd. I’ve never looked at a jersey that didn’t have one and thought, “Ya know what would be great? A giant needless ring of color!” Sigh.
Do the Jets shades of green on their throwbacks match their new unis? If so they could pair their throwback pants with the new unis to have matching stripes.
The greens are the same. And they won’t do that, nor should they, even though it probably would look better; it wouldn’t match the original.
Maybe Buffalo new uni’s in 2026 to coincide with the opening of their new stadium?
I’m don’t get the hate for the Pats uniforms. I mean not a Pats fan but I think they look pretty clean and nice. The UCLA stripes are a cool nod to their history. The grey pants look great! Not a fan of their all-navy mono look, but once in a while it’s fine. Their white jersey over blue pants is fine, and I’d like to see them over grey pants as well.
On a side note, I can’t *stand* this sloppy t-shirt-untucked-look the players are wearing. Even in the official photos for the Jets they all have them out, partially obscuring the pants. Feels like it just throws the whole look off. This and the loss of uniformity of socks drives me insane.
Personally, I think this current set is the best the Pats have looked since they switched to Elvis from Pat. Fans don’t dig the monochrome look, though.
Bills: The home uniform is perfect, the road uniform is perfect, the color rush is perfect. No notes on what they already have. I would like to see a red throwback helmet though.
Dolphins: The current unis are fine but the throwbacks are much better. I can’t understand why they took the helmet off the dolphin. One thing I would like to see them do is dabble with orange again. I think they could really pull it off if they do it correctly. The color rush was a hideous shade and designed poorly but there are plenty of good concept unis online.
Patriots: I don’t understand all the hate that their current unis get. The silver/blue/silver is a sharp look for sure but the mono blue is one of the most underrated looks in the game. Flying Elvis is also an underrated logo. It’s not as good as Pat Patriot but it’s not awful. Speaking of Pat Patriot, the throwbacks should not be their primary because the patriots wore blue and the redcoats wore red.
Jets: A massive improvement over their previous sets. I love black as a color for the jets and they use it to perfection. It has no business on their primary unis but works great as an alternate.
If the Dolphins wanted to silence those people clamoring for them to make their throwbacks permanent, why do they wear them during such high-profile, nationally televised games – Thursday and Monday nights!?!?
One note on the Inter Miami third jersey inspired by the Dolphins — it’s no longer a rumor and was announced back in July: link
You can even see the block number treatment on the MLS store site: link
The linked mock-up was speculation from much earlier in the year.
The new Jets uniforms are one of the best in the NFL. The Jets lettering is very slightly different but not noticeably so on the helmet. I looks a bit arched. The white around the collar should be reduced or eliminated. I like the 1990-1997 design with the black facemask and black number outlining. The Patriots need to wear the silver pants more often and I agree with the earlier post they would look great with the white jersey. I also like the 1993-1995 set that always wore silver pants and had royal blue jerseys with the current helmet. That was during the Parcells era. They tweaked them a bit with slanted numbers in 96 and they didn’t look as good.
The Bills current uniform looks good but they need to fix the stripe on the helmet. It’s too wide in the back. It should be uniform throughout. Also a blue or red alternate would be good. They should also remove the Bills logo on the pants it’s redundant and unnecessary. The Dolphins current uniforms look good, however if they were to change them they should go to the 1980’s design not the 1966. It’s a more modern look that most fans remember.
Well-dressed division, would be improved if the Dolphins threw it back full time.
It bothers me that Nike can’t get the NOB font right on the Jets’ throwbacks. They actually got the Champion numbers right, so they took notice of that aspect. They got it wrong for the Seahawks too.
The Patriots look still bothers me because it could be better. I prefer the Pat Patriot, even with the knee-jerk response that the people the original patriots (lowercase) opposed wore red, because it is a better look. This set could look better if they went back to Varsity block numbers and proper UCLA stripes on the jerseys, maybe with white as a trim color. Nike’s attempt at silver reads as drab gray and it doesn’t pop the way white would offset the red and navy.