2024 was a pretty big uni year in the NFL. Not only did four teams completely redesign (New York Jets, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos), but many teams made additions to their wardrobes, from new helmets to new pants to full new uniforms. Some were good, some were not. Here’s a look at teams who made big changes in 2024, along with a grading for each:
BALTIMORE RAVENS
New Alternate Purple Helmet
The Ravens were one of several teams to debut a new helmet in 2024, and the Ravens introduce a new purple helmet to pair with their CR uniform. I loved the new helmet, with its matte finish, and it paired much better with the CR than their regular black helmet. The overall look is a bit of a purple overload (even for those of us who don’t mind purple), but the helmet looked great.
GRADE: A-
BUFFALO BILLS
Red jersey over White Pants
Technically, there are no new uniform elements here, as the Bills simply introduced a new combo — but it’s been one combo I’ve been wanting to see for years. Don’t worry, I won’t be going over every new combo a team broke out: this one is just too good not to acknowledge. The Bills would do well to introduce a red helmet, which they could use both as a throwback to their four straight Super Bowl appearances and as an alternate with the red jersey and pants.
GRADE: B+
CINCINNATI BENGALS
New Orange Pants
Of all the uniform additions in 2025, this one might have been the best. And we first learned the Bengals would be adding orange pants from a video game leak. Because pants aren’t subject to the “alternate” restriction, the Bengals could wear them more than three times last season. They made excellent use of them, pairing them with orange jerseys and black socks, with black jerseys and black socks twice, and with white jerseys and white socks twice. *Chef’s Kiss!*
GRADE: A
GREEN BAY PACKERS
New White Helmet
And just like that we move from possibly the best addition to the worst. For some reason that has never been entirely clear, the Packers introduced a new white helmet to pair with their all-white CR uniform. Not only is the helmet completely unnecessary, but the team made the striping green/white/green, so it matches neither the striping on the jerseys nor the pants. When the NFL lifted the “one shell” restriction back in 2022, we knew it was a “be careful what you wish for” kind of thing. Yes, we get to see Pat Patriot and Bucco Bruce again, but we also get … this.
GRADE: F
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
New White Helmet
If the Packers new white helmet wasn’t bad enough, the Jaguars also introduced an alternate white helmet as well, but at least this helmet looks OK. The Jags logo shows up well on the matte white shell, but due to the NFL’s alternate use rules, the Jaguars had to pair it with their alternate black jersey, which is probably the least aesthetically pleasing combo. Pairing that with white yoga pants didn’t help. In theory, a white Jaguars helmet would probably work best if they could use it for a full icy white look, or perhaps it would pair better with the teal jersey, white pants and black socks. But the white/black/white/white did the new lid no favors.
GRADE: C
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
Prowler Throwbacks
As bad and unnecessary as the Jaguars white alternate helmet was, the team finally brought back their 1998 throwback uniforms for the 2024 season. This is quite possibly the team’s best ever look, and its return brought on speculation that the Jags might be thinking of promoting this to “primary” status and adding a white jersey from 1998 to become the primary road uni. For a team that’s been in the uni wilderness for two decades, making this the new primary uniform would be the best sartorial decision the franchise has ever made.
GRADE: A
MINNESOTA VIKINGS
New White Uniform
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The Vikings just didn’t introduce a new white helmet, to play into their “Winter Warrior” theme, the Vikes created an entirely new uniform which they’ll wear once a season. While completely unnecessary, the Winter Warrior uniform is actually pretty good, when looked at solely as a uniform. There were some visibility issues due to the use of silver as an accent, but thankfully the Vikings finally realized their ridiculous “sail” font numbers don’t look good, so they fixed that for this special kit. Again, it’s completely unnecessary, but if we view it solely as a uni…it’s pretty good.
GRADE: B
NEW YORK GIANTS
100th Season Throwback
As part of their 100th season, the Giants debuted a multi-era throwback, a hybrid of different year helmets, jerseys and pants. The Frankenuni was worn for Opening Day and is likely retired (it was expected to be just a one year special), although technically the team has to “keep” this uniform for an additioanl four years, so perhaps we haven’t seen the end of it. I rather liked the uniform, but it seemed both players and fans weren’t particularly keen on it. It was one of those “it was great to see once but never again” type of unis. A nice effort, but I think they would have been better served by picking one year and creating a uni that was as faithful to the original as modern fabric and tailoring will allow.
GRADE: B-
WASHINGTON COMMANDERS
New Gold Pants
Perhaps second only to the Cincinnati Bengals new orange pants, the Commanders decision to add gold pants was one of the best uni decisions of 2024. I mean, those pants just pop in the sunshine. The only disappointing thing about the gold trou is that they’re stripeless. But boy do they look good.
GRADE: A-
And there you have it…the biggest uniform additions (excluding the four teams who completely redesigned) for 2024. How would you grade the new looks?
While I like the Bengals in black over white and white, the orange pants are so great I wish they would wear them with their home and away jerseys all the time. It’s kind of like how the Browns look good in white pants but the orange pants look so good they should always wear them as well.
I think they look best with the white jersey. I think they could use some white in the stripes.
I feel like the Commanders are signaling a move back to the old pre-name change uniforms. Given the political climate in this country, it’s even within the realm of possibility that they’ll take another look at the name situation. But the Commanders name and uni set are so Daniel Snyder coded that it really feels like they’ll get patched out of existence when the five-year window is up.
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Actually, the current owner has said that they’re not going to be revisiting the nickname.
The uniforms I could see them revisiting, but the nickname won’t be returning.
This isn’t that hard—take the classic Deadskins uniform and simply swap out the racist AF logo for a W in the old wordmark font…
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As a Native American, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop calling the Redskins’ logo racist. It pays tribute to a great man from our history, and we all want it brought back.
Indeed and stay tuned. I’ll have more to say on the Commanders next week!
Hard disagree on the Vikings, especially “…but if we view it solely as a uni…it’s pretty good.” Because the white logos on a white helmet are an awful uni design. Not only is it an unnecessary, it is bad too.
Agreed on the white horn on white helmet. But that’s not a bug, it’s a feature (not that I like it as such).
I’d say this is the NFL encouraging a sort-of “City” connect type design motif here. A one-off (well, once yearly) that tries to tie into a theme (“Winter”) for a city.state known for its oftentimes harsh winter weather.
I could easily see more teams doing something similar. Not a City Connect or City Edition, but a uniform that kinda-sorta looks vaguely similar to their regular one, but different enough that no part of it could ever be mixed/matched with the primary uniform elements.
If I were to rate it solely as a Vikings uni, it gets much lower marks than it does as a standalone uniform.
And like the City Connect/Edition of MLB/NBA, it feels more like a merch dump than a true alternate.
I’ve been trying to figure out if this idea passes the “is it good or is it stupid” test all season, but what if the Ravens resurrected their only-used-once mustard pants to wear with that combo?
I wish the Ravens had won that game in which they wore the gold pants. Too bad they never saw a second wearing — as I think the pants definitely have potential as an option for the Ravens. I could see them being paired with the CR (which wouldn’t make it a CR anymore), or any of their three other tops (black, purple, white). It was kinda jarring at the time (link) to see that combo, but it definitely grew on me.
Amazing idea. The ravens need to try new things. It’s such a slam dunk design language. They could easily go with more black (they are ravens after all), or lean into purple and gold, they could have really nice logos (it’s easy to make a raven look cool, and the Maryland flag is iconic). But they stay muddling in uni design and their logos are all circling the toilet bowl waiting to go down.
The Commanders should just go back to the Riggins uniform with burgundy pants and white jersey. Just change out the logo inside the white circle on the helmet. And then wear yellow pants with the burgundy jersey, and occasionally mix it up with an alternate yellow helmet from the Sonny Jergensen days.
That would be good.
I’m not as much of a fan of the Bills wearing the red jerseys (although I enjoy the chutzpah of wearing essentially Pat Patriot uniforms against the Patriots), but I’d love to see them do a white/blue/red/blue arrangement. Their color choices are so bold that such a uniform would really pop.
And yes, Jacksonville Jaguars, just bring back the classics and pretend the entire journey through uniform weirdness (contradiction in terms) never happened.
Another idea could be add a single burgundy strip on the yellow pants, like in the 1960’s. It would also be kind of thematic with the current helmet stripe.
Washington needs to bring back yellow face mask for sure.
I started paying attention to football around 2012 when the Bengals were an uninspiring team (in the playoffs, then in the regular season a few years later) wearing just awful uniforms. It’s great to see them progress into one of the best-dressed teams in the league and almost clinching a Super Bowl. The black jersey over orange pants is a superb look and I hope they never change it!
The Bengals would look better in the 97-03 uniform with orange socks.
I would like to add an element that’s so minor, it’s no surprise it got overlooked: the Steelers’ grey facemask on their block throwbacks (“to 1974”).
While it’s not a big deal on the surface, I personally wondered if we would ever see the grey after they celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, with Franco passing just before that game, and did so in “regular” black facemasks.
It was a massive letdown then, and a massive plus this year to finally see that look. Hope it comes back for a “throwback to 75” this coming season.
Also, as a Jax resident, I support the Jags using the white helmet in all-white, but can we please call it their “snow leopard” look?
I think the Jags helmet looks really good. As long as the jersey or pants is white it should pair well. I’d love to see it with every white jersey combo.
Never liked the Vikings icy effort, the Packers white helemt is a no bo but I did like the Giants throwback. The orange Bengals pants and gold Washington pants (needs striping) are worty additions. Ravens helmet? Every now and then but not in mono purple sets. Jags should return to these throwbacks and the white helmet is OK but not with a black jersey.
I feel like the Viking’s uins are hard to look at and like you said unnecessary. I think a purple logo would have been better,
The Green Bay Packers had a meeting. Attending this meeting were equipment managers from the team, probably the GM and a handful of highly paid designers from the NFL and Nike. The topic? A new alternate helmet for Green Bay, one of the most traditionally clad football teams in all the land, and for a lot of people, the first team that comes to mind when they think about “fall” and “football”. Their task was simple; design an alternate, white version of the Packers internationally recognized “Cheesehead Gold” helmet. When they completed their work (which probably took somewhere between 35-60 seconds because THE ASSIGNMENT WAS PRETTY FREAKING STRAIGHT FORWARD) they stared in wonder at their creation, and as they marveled at their work, a small voice from the back of the room startled them out of hypnosis. They all whipped their heads around to see who dared speak during such a momentous occasion…it was their old pal Common Sense, who said softly and simply, “Why don’t we make the center stripe gold to match literally all of the other stripes on the white uniform with which this helmet will be worn?” For a brief moment, hey were shocked! Why hadn’t they thought of this? Then, they all laughed and laughed and went to Delilah’s for lunch, leaving Common Sense standing alone, with an incomplete, but completely frustrating, football helmet in Conference Room 3B on the third floor of 1265 Lombardi Avenue…