Week 16 will feature only one brand new combination, which you can see above. The Buffalo Bills will wear their red jerseys and socks with white pants for the first time ever. It is possible some of the teams who have yet to unveil their pants/socks may produce some new combos, but the only other alternate uniform to be worn this weekend will be by the Falcons, who are throwing back against the Giants. The rest of the games will feature squads in their primary uniforms. So most teams will look like they’re supposed to.
Who’ll challenge for the Top 5 and who’ll need to go back to the uni-drawing board? Let’s look at the contenders below.
This post will be updated as teams who have not announced full combos do so.
Saturday Games:
The Texans will go blue/white/blue/blue for their matchup with KC. Those two teams, along with the Steelers and Ravens, are playing special Saturday games since all four will also play on Christmas Day. Each of those teams will have a special holiday inspired patch for their games on Christmas Day (I believe they’ll also wear those patches this weekend as well). Here’s a look at that patch on the Texans.
The Steelers will look good, as always, in their regular road uniforms, while Baltimore will be very purple-heavy, going with mono-purple below the helmet. Whereas this might normally be a T-5 contender, it may need to fight for a top spot this weekend.
Sunday Early Games
As is typical, the Panthers have not yet unveiled their pants or socks, but they’ll be wearing their silver helmets over black jerseys for only the third time this season (the first time they went with their classic silver-gray pants and black socks, and the second time they created a never-before-worn combo of silver/black/blue/black). I wouldn’t mind seeing that combo again, but with the Panthers, we can probably expect something different. The Cards, meanwhile, will be in their normal all-white road uniforms.
UPDATE: The Panthers will wear black pants and socks (another new uni combo this season).
As of this writing, Cleveland still hasn’t unveiled their pants or socks, but based on Cincy’s combo, I wouldn’t expect them to wear orange pants. I believe the Browns do still have a brown pants option, although they haven’t worn brown pants yet this season. The Bengals are going orange/black/orange/black, a combo they’ve worn once so far this season. Since they added the orange pants option this season, the Bengals have worn them thrice, and this Sunday will mark the fourth time. This combo is definitely one of my favorites for the Bengals, so that puts it on track for a T-5 finish.
UPDATE: In a last minute switcheroo, the Browns have announced they’ll wear their 1946 Fauxbacks.
Although technically the Lions haven’t unveiled their pants/hose, I’m about 99.9% sure they’ll stick with their mono-white-below-the-neck look, in which the team is undefeated. Also, the Bears haven’t unveiled any element of their uniforms, but I expect they’ll be in their normal, classic midnight/midnight/white home uniforms. Were they going to break out their alternate orange helmet/jersey, they likely would have done so by now.
UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, the Lions are wearing white pants and socks.
Jets owner Woody Johnson usually tweets the Jets uniform combos before the game, so the above is subject to change, but I expect the team to be in their green/green/white/green combo. I base that on this tweet the team put out yesterday. No matter what the Jets wear, the Rams are going royal/white/royal/royal.
UPDATE: The Jets will wear mono-green.
It will be a good looking game in Atlanta this Sunday, with the Giants in their normal road uniforms and the Falcons going with their glorious throwbacks. Say it with me now: “They should make these permanent.” The Falcons regular uniforms leave much to be desired, but their throwbacks are just fantastic-looking. Easy T-5 candidate right here.
The Eagles haven’t unveiled their uniform combination for this game, but I do expect them to wear their midnight green helmets and white jerseys. They’ve paired their green, white and black pants with the white jerseys this season. The Commanders, meanwhile, haven’t declared what they’ll be wearing below their waist. Hopefully they won’t go mono-burgundy, and I expect them to wear their gold pants.
UPDATE #1: The Eagles will wear black pants and white socks.
UPDATE #2: The Commanders will indeed wear gold pants and burgundy socks.
This will be an EXACT uni rematch for these teams, who wore these exact uniforms the first time they met in Tennessee in Week 6. So why is it the same matchup? Because this is the Colts annual White Out Week, where the team goes mono-white at home. Unlike say, the Packers or Vikings, who created special uniform elements for their own all-white-at-home “Winter” uniforms, the Colts typically wear this combo on the road all the time. But this is the only time this season they wear white at home.
Sunday Late Games
It’ll be a dreary looking uni matchup in Seattle on Sunday, with the Vikings wearing purple helmets and pants, while the Seahawks are countering with their traditional home uniform of mono-navy. It might not be the best looking matchup of the weekend, but it’ll probably avoid the dreaded “And One.”
As of this writing, the Jaguars have not announced their full uniform, but they will black helmets and white jerseys. The Raiders will be in their regular (and fantastic) silver and black home uniforms. Perhaps surprisingly, the Jaguars have not paired their black/white with teal pants at all this season, while their only repeat combos have come with those helmets/jerseys. Will they introduce another new combo for Sunday afternoon?
UPDATE: The Jags will indeed be wearing a new combo: they will pair their teal pants and white socks with the black helmet and white jersey.
Should be an interesting looking game in Buffalo this Sunday, with the Bills set to debut a brand new uniform combination, wearing their red color rush jerseys and socks, but pairing those with white pants. This is a look I’ve been waiting to see for almost a decade! The Patriots will run back their silver-gray pants again (which most agree look much better when paired with their blue jerseys). This will still be a nice matchup uni-wise, and definitely in the running for a strong T-5 finish.
We know the 49ers will be in their classic gold/white/gold road uniforms, and the Dolphins will be in their (fairly rare) aqua jerseys at home. I expect the Dolphins to pair the aqua tops with white pants, based on this tweet from Miami. I would hope the Dolphins wear aqua socks if they don the white pants, which would make this game a prime T-5 candidate.
Sunday Night Football
While the Bucs haven’t revealed their uniform for this Sunday night, with Dallas wearing their regular home uniforms, I would expect the Bucs to be in red jerseys, but since it’s a prime-time game, I want to leave open the (slim) possibility of them breaking out the all-pewter getup. I certainly don’t expect that, especially on the road, but it’s almost a certainty they’ll wear red jerseys.
UPDATE: Tampa Bay will wear red jerseys and pewter pants.
And there you have it — the matchups, as currently known, for Sunday’s games. Obviously I’ll update this once the teams who have not declared their sartorial choices have done so.
Monday Night’s game will have the Saints in white jerseys with the Packers in their regular home uniforms
Keep checking back for updates!
I hope the Bucs go with Red jerseys, White pants! Those all-pewter unis need to join the “alarm clock” ones in the trashcan of history.
Fully agree.
Most of the mono-dark uniforms look like PJs, but somehow the pewter ones look extra pajama-y to me. I can’t explain it.
GUD shows Cleveland in their fauxbacks with the white helmets again.
That happened just after I’d posted this article. It has now been updated.
Thanks!
Yep…Browns definitely wearing the fauxbacks on Sunday. They’ve practiced in the while helmets all week.
The white pants REALLY improve the Bills red alternates. Looking forward to seeing it on the field!
You said this will only be the second time this year the Panthers wear their silver helmets with their black jerseys, but didn’t they wear a silver/black/blue/black combo (a first time combo) against the Bucs a couple of weeks ago? I think this will be at least the third time this season they wear their silver helmets and black jerseys.
Great catch!
Yes, they did break out that new combo against the Bucs. I’ve updated the text in the article to reflect this.
Thanks!
Eagles just announced they are wearing black pants against the Commanders. Not a terrible look but inferior to green pants for sure. I can’t think of any time I’ve seen them in green pants and thought “they would look better with black pants”. Black britches only worked better with white jerseys when they paired them with their black helmets in week 1 (although the midnight green helmet is pretty close to black anyway). Sigh.
GUD has the packers wearing green throwbacks and plain yellow helmet.
Refreshing GUD shows packers in regular home. Boo
Actually not a bad slate of games, uni-wise. Vikings at Seattle might be the best candidate for &1 with maybe Titans at Indianapolis in the running. That Bengals look is my absolute favorite. I’m happy to see Washington wearing the yellow pants. Jets have looked surprisingly good this season; those “Sack Exchange” unis are so refreshing.
give the Pats blue/red socks – good
give the Eagles midnight green pants – good
please can we get the Vikings some yellow socks to go with those britches???????
give the Ravens some mustard socks – good
put the Colts in blue socks and Titans in light blue socks – decent
give the giants some gray britches – winner
Rams in yellow britches – winner winner, chicken dinner!!!!!!!!
Amen to Falcons making the throwbacks permanent! They are glorious!
Bills v Pats. Turned it on and thought buffalo was the pats In throwbacks