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Report: Steelers and Browns Will Add New Helmets Next Season

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As was the case in 2024, when a whopping 13 teams added new helmets to their uniform lineups, we’ll be seeing more teams adding additional helmets for the 2025 season.

According to FanDuel’s Zach Cohen, who last year was able to scoop many of the new NFL helmet additions, two of the league’s more traditional and long standing franchises — the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns — will be adding new helmets next season.

He explains more in the video embedded above.

As you are likely aware, the NFL ditched the “one shell” rule for the 2022 season, permitting teams to wear a second helmet in a different color from their primary — allowing teams to introduce (or reintroduce) previously-mothballed throwbacks, which was great. But the NFL didn’t limit teams to throwback-only alternate helmets, which was as much of a blessing as it was a curse, as several teams simply created new helmet designs to be worn with any alternate or Color Rush uniforms. It was the classic “be careful what you wish for” situation.

The NFL further amended its helmet shell rules for the 2024 season, permitting teams who redesigned for 2024 to have a third helmet shell. We saw teams like the Jets (green, black, white), Texans (two blue shells, red) and Eagles (midnight green, kelly green, black) take advantage. This season, all NFL teams will have the option to add a third helmet for 2025 and beyond.

The Browns, one of the teams identified by Cohen, currently have two helmets: their classic orange shell and a white helmet, which they introduced a couple years ago to pair with their 1946 fauxback uniform.

What could a possible third shell be? Cohen offers a few possibilities in his video, including the introduction of a brown helmet. Being the Browns colors are brown, orange and white, a new brown helmet is probably a distinct possibility.

The Steelers currently only have one shell, a black one, and they use it with all their uniform combinations (home, road, Color Rush, throwback). Cohen suggests a return to a gold shell is a possibility, as is introducing a white helmet. The Steelers wore a gold shell from 2007-2011, pairing it with a 1962 throwback uniform. While the Steelers had worn gold helmets for basically all of their existence up until 1962, that was the only season where the helmet bore the classic US Steel logo on the side. It’s possible the Steelers might reintroduce that throwback next season. Of course, by NFL rules, they wouldn’t need to create a throwback helmet — they could simply reintroduce a gold shell to be worn as an alternate.

Cohen also mentions a white helmet as a possibility. We saw several teams introduce new white shells last season.

There has been no indication when either team plans to introduce new helmets for 2025. We know that teams who are redesigning will almost always unveil their new uniforms before the NFL Draft (which this year begins on April 24). Other teams who don’t undergo full uniform redesigns will often hold off until after the Draft before announcing uni/helmet changes.

It might be interesting to see the Browns add a brown helmet — I can’t imagine it would be any other color than brown (unless they’re planning on pulling some kind of BFBS alternate). I hope the Steelers are going to reintroduce a gold shell — but with the number of teams who have added white shells in the past couple seasons, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if they were to do so as well.

Assuming Cohen is correct, what do you think? What would you like to see (or NOT like to see) for the Browns and Steelers new shells?

 
  
 
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Comments (37)

    Brownout Game, where the stadium randomly turns the lights off for indeterminate stretches.

    Mono-turd is the only uniform fitting of a team who intentionally mortgaged the next decade for Deshaun Watson.

    Really? I can imagine them in any color helmet. I am imagining them in a pink one now. Now I am imagining them in a powder blue one. Maybe next I’ll imagine them in green. The possibilities are endless!

    The NFL does not need anymore white helmets. Steelers need gold. Chargers need Royal. Then trash the navy alts and get the royal alt back with yellow pants.

    Yellow for the Steelers, and orange helmet with numbers for the Browns are the two most likely options. Just because a team will be adding a new helmet doesn’t mean it will be a new color helmet.

    “Just because a team will be adding a new helmet doesn’t mean it will be a new color helmet.”

    That much is true, and unfortunately Cohen didn’t specify if it’s a new shell or the same shell color with a different logo or design. But teams have been able to wear multiple helmet designs, even under the one-shell rule, as long as it was the same shell. I wouldn’t want to state affirmatively that the Browns and Steelers are getting new shell colors, but that seems to me at least somewhat likely.

    I feel like given the source the implication is a new shell. I’m not sure how many waves there would be about something like just adding number stickers or a different center stripe like the browns have done in the past (though a logo on helmet would be a big deal, but I don’t even know if that would be leaking this early if there also wasn’t an alt shell involved).

    I’m surprised it wasn’t the first guess here, but my main assumption is orange chrome. It would let them “keep the traditional design” while still doing something flashy – and I think ownership learned from the last uni update as they’ve been leaning hard into traditional elements in all the team branding

    Are there any teams doing a new uniform or design for next year ? Or even rumors of anything new on the horizon

    A Washington reporter said that the Commanders would be “tweaking” their uniforms this offseason. They haven’t reached the threshold for a fully new set, but seems they’ll have some small changes.

    The gold helmet is a great look for the Steelers.

    For the browns, how about brown helmet with the Brownie the elf logo?

    Browns could also simply add a second orange helmet in the shade closer to the 2014 refresh. I’m not sure what the point would be. But I guess it could be that. But it’s probably a brown helmet

    I wonder if the Browns “helmet change” could be a gray or orange facemask. I am not high on a brown helmet.

    As I mentioned to another commenter, it’s not clear whether he means a new shell or the same shell with a different logo, design, striping pattern, cage, etc.

    Since the NFL is permitting all teams to have up to three different shells this year, I have to think that the “change” is a new color shell, rather than swapping decals or face masks (since teams were permitted to do that even before the NFL moved to the two-shell option in 2022).

    Again, I don’t know for sure either team will get a different color shell, but that seems more likely than simply creating a different helmet with an existing shell.

    “Since the NFL is permitting all teams to have up to three different shells this year, I have to think that the ‘change’ is a new color shell, rather than swapping decals or face masks (since teams were permitted to do that even before the NFL moved to the two-shell option in 2022).”
    Is this specific to shell color, or is it just up to three helmet designs regardless of color? And if it is specific to shell color, could a team then hypothetically have more than 3 helmet designs? For instance, could the Titans go with their current navy helmet, a white Oilers helmet, a white Titans throwback helmet, and a baby blue Oilers helmet? In the past was there a restriction on helmet designs when you could only use the same shell each week?

    Good questions. First off, the “one shell” (or now multiple shell) restrictions never applied to the same color helmet with different decals or cages. Before the one shell rule was lifted in 2022, teams were free to swap cages and decals (and many did). For example, the Chargers wore a single white shell, but had different decals for their all-royal and all-navy uniforms. So if the Titans want to wear a white shell with Oilers or Titans decals, that’s still ONE helmet. In theory, they can also add a powder blue helmet to the navy and white helmets they already have. Where it gets tricky is the NFL rule restricting alternates to three games. If the Titans keep their navy helmet as their primary, they would still have three opportunities to wear alternates. But they’re also at their uniform max: navy and white (primary), light blue (alternate) and throwback. If they were to try to add a light blue helmet to permit a 1972-74 throwback, they could do so, but then they would need to scrap their light blue jersey. Or if they want to add a powder blue helmet to pair with their alternate light blue jersey, they could do that as well. But they couldn’t do both.

    Some teams (like the Cowboys), use their alternate shells with two different uniforms: they pair their white shells with both their “color rush” AND their throwback (different decals). But since it is the same helmet, it doesn’t count as two different shells. But because it’s an alternate helmet, it is subject to the “three alternate max” restriction.

    Again, the prohibition was for the shell COLOR, not design. Simply swapping cages or decals doesn’t count as a second helmet. But it does count towards an alternate max. And since the NFL still mandates primary helmets to be worn with primary home and road uniforms, that limits what they can do. Some teams seem to flout this (think Bengals with their White Tiger — they’re wearing their primary road jersey, but it’s also designated as an alternate when paired with the white hat; or the Panthers pairing their black helmets with black jerseys — technically their primary, but when they wear the black helmet with the all-black uniform, that’s considered an alternate by the NFL).

    I’m sure the NFL will continue to loosen and revise what helmets can be worn with what uniforms.

    I’ll be grossed out if the Steelers go with a white shell. I miss the yellow helmets with the extra large logo, that was a great alternate look, second IMHO to the bumble bee set.

    Can a team add 2 helmets in an offseason? Maybe the Steelers add a gold and a white helmet. I like the gold and I’m actually intrigued for a white helmet with them. Just pair it with the white jersey. Unless they also introduce white pants.

    “Can a team add 2 helmets in an offseason?”

    For 2025 (and beyond or until the NFL changes things again), all teams will be permitted to have three different shells. I don’t believe there is anything preventing a team with just one shell from adding two more in one year, as long as they have no more than three different shells. So it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that the Steelers could add both a gold and a white shell. I certainly hope if they’re adding a new color shell, it’s gold. But teams adding an alternate white helmet seems to be a thing these days.

    I really hope the Browns one isn’t brown. One of the things that makes their uniforms great is the combo of bright orange helmets and the dark brown in their uniforms.

    I’d love for the Steelers to bring back the gold helmets, but I wonder if they might bring in a chrome or “steel” helmet. I hope not, but you never know.

    While the Steelers logo was indeed created by United States Steel Corporation (officially branded as “U. S. Steel’ with spaces between the periods), it was Cleveland’s Republic Steel that suggested the Steelers use the Steelmark as a helmet logo in 1962.

    link

    Maybe the Steelers will wise up and put a logo on both sides of the helmet. Revolutionary, I’d say!

    I mean, the Browns frigging logo is their orange helmet.
    I sort of get the white as a fauxback, but introducing a 3rd helmet would just be asinine.

    (Or maybe we have all got this wrong, and the new helmet is actually the white one but with the striping now changed to match the pants. Too much to hope for?!?)

    Okay I think a copper metallic for the browns would kinda be okay I guess or a orange metallic would be nice depends on the orange but no more damn white it looks weird

    The Steelers play in Ireland and have strong links there. Could they do something crazy like a green alt uniform?

Comments are closed.