Today is the biggest and most important day of the 2011 Rookie Premiere, mainly because this is when the photos are being done for the products this year. After seeing the rookies tooling around town in the ridiculous “00” jerseys all weekend, its nice to see that they are NOT wearing them when it counts. It makes me feel THAT much better about the situation we are in due to the lockout.

Both Topps and Panini are setting up today, taking photos, signing cards, and interviewing players, so there will be a lot of content to cover, thank god. Topps, so far, has a head start showing off both the Rookie Premiere autos from the upcoming 2011 Topps Football product, and the Red Zone autographs that may be inserted across their calendar again this year. Although some collectors werent too keen on these cards in their middle of the year higher end products, Im one who thought their inclusion added some nice content to many products that otherwise lacked hard signed cards. This year, they look absolutely bad ass, regardless of the androgynous pictures of the #10 Pick, Blaine Gabbert.

We also got close ups of the dual Rookie Premiere autos and some single ones too, both of which look pretty good. Its kind of unfortunate that the pics are so small on the duals, but that is a staple these days. I like the design otherwise, even though I rarely purchase any rookie dual autos without assurance that BOTH players will add value to the card instead of subtract.

Lastly, it looks as if “using the college numbers for the players” wasnt all entirely true, and that the NFLPA took some liberties to prevent problems. First, Cam Newton is wearing good ole number 1, a situation usually reserved for kickers and Warren Moon. He is most likely going to end up with Clausen’s number 2, but im not hating this situation considering that he is the number one pick. AJ Green of the Bengals looks to be wearing number 18 instead of number 8 like he did in college. Kyle Rudolph of the Vikings is also not wearing number 9 like he did last year, instead wearing what looks like 82 he never wore during his college career. There are also two rookies still wearing their “00” jersey, but it doesnt look like they are anyone important. Im sure more interesting things will come about as soon as more pictures are released.

UPDATE 1: Not really liking these cards that could possibly be the Pen Pals cards. The tiny ass combine photos arent helping any, and neither is the way the card is formatted. When compared side by side with Topps’ version, its easy to see which company comes out ahead. We still havent gotten a look at the Elite cards that will feature on card autos, but I am NOT holding my breath. Shocking, right?

UPDATE 2: Still not a good look on the Elite cards with Dalton and Green, but they are vertical, and the original preview was terrible. Not looking good so far.

UPDATE 3: looks like Panini is potentially trying player sketch cards this year. I guess they didnt learn from Topps’ epic failure last year. I hope both companies give up on that crap.

UPDATE 4: Its official, the Elite cards look EXACTLY like the preview. Cards that were AWESOME last year look absolutely horrible this year. Typical. Also, Ryan Williams is wearing a “00” Jim Otto jersey for the premiere, probably because of Tim Hightower owning his college number. Not sure why he wasnt one of the exceptions. Maybe it was his choice, but its terrible news for Cardinals fans.

UPDATE 5: Now that we get a close up of the Elite cards, they look even worse than I could ever have imagine. When you see how good the other hard signed cards look, these are a complete joke. The Panini design team is clearly and vastly inferior to any other in the business. When you see some of the custom work that is out there from more amateur collectors, these are a freaking laugh and a half.

UPDATE 6: Inception continues to look like a front runner for best looking set of the year. The 180 degree turnaround for Topps’ design team is absolutely remarkable. They are making Panini look foolish. Speaking of foolish, it becomes more and more clear each year how much I hate pictures of the players with their helmets off. That feeling is doubled when I see them in a studio style shot against some wall or whatever. The companies need to pull their heads out of their asses and realize that the brand image of a player is NOT COMPLETE without the helmet. This ISNT BASEBALL.

UPDATE 7: With another preview of the Panini Elite cards and the Pen Pals cards, we are seeing that they opted for combine pictures for a lot of these sets. Aside from the fact that they look effing awful, it begs a few questions. First, they spent a lot of time shooting the rookies in their Jim Otto “00” jerseys, and Topps was good enough to get those pics made into cards overnight. Why couldnt they? Its better than the lame ass combine pics of the rookies looking like idiots. Second, National Treasures is just a shade under 1 year away, and it offers a tiny bit of other hard signed content if this year holds true to last. Why are they getting these cards signed NOW when there are no pictures? Last years looked okay because they had a good design and had OTA pics of the rookies in their NFL type gear. There is no reason why they cant wait to do these with the rest of the stuff, especially with how late in the year the cards come out. That, and they need to be re-named. Pen Pals is for 10 year olds writing to China, and crazy women writing to prison inmates.

UPDATE 8 (FINAL): Although you all probably expect me to say this, Topps is obviously the big winner of the weekend when you see the cards side by side. Final update shows that someone at Panini was soliciting artwork from the players, not sure if it will go into cards though. Blaine Gabbert may be good, but I doubt anyone else qualifies as worthy of a sketch card. Lets hope they dont do what we expect. As for the Pen Pals cards, the duals look a bit better, but I still think that combine pictures mixed in with draft day pictures looks horrid. Ill post my winners and losers of premiere weekend tomorrow. Have a good night everyone!

Ill be adding pics to this gallery as the weekend progresses, so check back during the course of today especially.