Reader George Noriega has embarked on a minor redesign for all NFL teams’ current uniforms. When George reached out to me earlier, he proposed “a weekly submission of tweaks to various teams that IMO (and also based on reader feedback) would address a lot of the comments and criticisms we see every week on Monday Morning Uni Watch.” He isn’t looking to change much, but feels his tweaks would enhance the overall look for each team.
Some of George’s tweaks have already run as parts of larger lede articles. I’ll be running George’s tweaks by Division over the next couple weeks.
Today we’ll look at his proposals for the AFC West Division. Here’s George — enjoy!
AFC West Tweaks
by George Noriega
Just a quick rundown of the concept and an example of what I would be looking to do:
- (1) For all teams, tweaks would be based off their current templates, so I’m not looking to do complete overhauls i.e. Cardinals, Commanders and Rams would keep their current templates
- (2) Mono uniforms are OK i.e. Pats all-blue, Jets all-green, Saints all-black, etc., but also…
- (3) No leotard/yoga pants look, regardless of whether pant stripes break the look up
- (4) No plain white socks; socks are either contrasting color to the pants or striped
Denver Broncos
Home: Navy/orange/white/navy
Away: Navy/white/white/navy
Alt. 1: Navy/navy/white/navy
Alt. 2: Navy/white/orange/navy
Color Rush: White/white/white/white AKA The Snow Out
Throwback: Blue/orange/white/blue socks with orange & white stripes
Notes: One small tweak to the pants stripe on all the pants as the contrasting stripe gets extended all the way down the pants leg; why Nike uses a truncated stripe on their redesigns is a mystery and an annoyance… another team with WAY too many possible combinations, so we’re going to stick with looks that have been traditionally associated with the Broncos in the Home, Away and Alternate 1 unis, plus navy/white/orange/navy which I think is a really sharp look and harkens back to the late-60’s and 70’s when they used orange pants on their Away unis… also of interest is the navy/navy/orange/navy set, which has this Syracuse Orange vibe going on… instead of (inexplicably) pairing an all navy-look with the white helmet I decided to go all-white for a Whiteout/Snow Out look for the Broncos, since they play in a locale that is definitely familiar with snowy whiteout conditions.
Kansas City Chiefs
Home: Red/red/white/red striped socks
Away: Red/white/red/white striped socks, red-yellow-red
Alt. 1: Red/white/white/white striped socks, red-yellow-red
Alt. 2: Red/white/white/red striped socks
Color Rush: Red/red/red/red striped socks AKA The Blood Clot
Notes: My preference has always been red pants on the Away uniform, so that’s what we’re going with as the default.
Los Angeles Chargers
Home: White/powder blue/white/powder blue
Away: White/white/white/powder blue
Alt. 1: White/powder blue/yellow/powder blue
Alt. 2: White/white/yellow/powder blue
Alt. 3: “fauxback”: Blue/blue/yellow/blue socks with a white stripe AKA The Air Coryells
Alt. 4: “fauxback”: Navy/navy/white/navy AKA The Junior Seaus
Notes: My personal preference is for the uniforms with white pants as opposed to yellow pants… perhaps my biggest change would be in the alternates, as, instead of the royal blue mono look and navy mono Color Rush look that the Chargers have used before, I would use the modern template to do fauxback sets reminiscent of the royal ones worn by Dan Fouts and the navy ones worn by Junior Seau; since their current powder blue set is also reminiscent of their classics and not a 1;1 representation of the originals (like the 1994 and 2000’s throwbacks were), I feel it makes more sense to do it this way as opposed to actual throwbacks.
Las Vegas Raiders
Home: Silver/black/silver/black
Away: Silver/white/silver/black
Alt. 1: SIlver/white/silver/black, uniform numbers silver with black outline
Notes: The SIlver and Black, nothing more needs to be said. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Or Al Davis might rise from the grave and sue you.
Thanks, George!
Minor change but I really wish the Broncos’ (and nearly all teams’) jerseys had TV numbers, as the shoulders look too empty without. Chargers are okay to skip though as they have numbers on the helmets.
I’d love to see the Raiders do an Oakland Senors throwback for a game.
I would switch all the Broncos shoulder colors to white on top. It’s supposed to be a snow capped mountain I believe but the colors are confusing.
I love all of these, especially the Chargers fauxbacks. I want this to happen.
The best thing is we go from the Broncos with 14 shown, could be upwards of 25 if the white helmet was an option for all, to the Raiders with 3!! Simpler is better. And yes, the Chargers need to bring back the Royal and add yellow pants with a Royal outline on the bolt.
I appreciate the work that goes into doing these tweaks. If I were to undertake this project, my rules of thumb would be:
1. No mono unis, full stop. I can’t think of a single one that looks good. I would make an exception for mono white, with the conditions that the pants must have stripes and the socks must either have stripes or being a contrasting color. For example, I’d allow the Colts mono white uni but only if they wear blue socks with it.
2. No alt helmets. Legit throwback helmets are okay, but no alts for the sake of having alts. Again, using the Colts as an example: their black helmet is a hard no. Same with the Lions and all the “icy white” helmets.
3. Each team gets a home set, a road set, and a legit throwback. Alts are approved on a case-by-case basis. There’s no reason why a team should be like Carolina and wear 14 different sets in 17 games. This rule goes hand-in-hand with the following rule:
4. Pick a color of socks. For the Broncos, they either get blue/orange/white/blue or blue/orange/white/orange, but not both options.
To me, the Raiders have a much stronger identity than the Broncos because you know what they look like. They accomplish more with 3 unis than the Broncos do with 14. The first 3 Chiefs unis above are fire. They don’t need anything else.
As for the Chargers – they need to pick a shade of blue. Personally I prefer the powder blue, but royal is nice also. They really don’t need the navy option, IMO.
I like how you went a little further than the obv no leotard look and said no white socks at all.
Also, one thing has always bugged me about KC is theres BFBS on the helmet and no where else, and yellow on uniform but not helmet. I know this isnt really a helmet focused piece but Id like to see them replace the black KC outline w yellow, and/ or add either a yellow center stripe a la Steelers or one to match pant stripes.
I was really hoping the KC helmet would change the black to yellow in this. Their uniforms are gorgeous if they’d do that and imo add something on the nose bumper.
As a Raiders fan, I was a bit nervous when I opened this one. I was already prepared to type “It ain’t broke, it don’t need to be fixed.” I’m glad that was also George’s opinion.
I dunno. Too many options for Denver. Suggestion: junk all of them and go with their current throwback. Or if you don’t want to do that, simplify the current set and reduce the number of combinations, there is absolutely no reason to have essentially a different uniform set for every game.
And for San Diego, have an actual throwback and not just “throwback but with current number treatment”. And pick one, no reason for both.
I would LOVE to see the Chargers in those Fouts-era unis. They did go mono-royal several times with their latest unis but it’s just not the same without those yellow pants.
Watching Denve this weekend convinced me that the thowbacks need to be the primary.
Raiders white jersey needs to have silver numerals, full stop
Chargers white over gold pants are underrated
Chiefs white over red is their best look
bring back pat patriot full time
tbh I love to see Denver’s Navy/Navy/ White/Navy uniform combination.
Chargers fan here – I agree on the yellow pants. We already share a city, stadium, colors (blue and yellow), and an arch-shaped logo with the Rams. I don’t mind how the Bolts look in the yellow pants, but it’s just another detail that’s traditionally been more identifiable for the Rams.