Some of the first singles for 2013 Elite Football have been posted, and for the most part, they mirror the situations we saw in their QC break and preview. Overall, I see a lot of upgrades, as I mentioned before, but I am sick over the wasted potential of some of the cards and the way they look.

Here are some of the big hits already up:

2013 Panini Elite Matt Barkley Auto Status Gold RC /49 – Really looks good.

2013 Panini Elite Montee Ball Auto Status Gold RC /49

2013 Panini Elite Manti Te'o Auto RC /299

2013 Panini Elite Geno Smith Turn of the Century /199

2013 Panini Elite Keenan Allen Inscriptions Auto Acetate

2013 Panini Elite Knile Davis Jumbo Patch 3 Color

My favorite cards of the set are easily the base and rookie autos. The parallels are almost reminiscent of Chrome with bright colored borders, which look great, as do the die cut cards along the way. These EASILY could have been a complete disaster with the way the base cards are designed, but Panini rightfully fought the urge to use a big white box, and went for the gradient fade instead. Are you out there listening Panini? Thank you for this.

I also really like the Hard Hats cards as I said before, as the updated photography from the premiere on most of them is a welcome addition over 2012. I am a big fan of the use of acetate, which has become big as of late, but this is something that is right up there with the best of them. Its a cool idea.

As for the rest, I am still angry that Panini ruined the New Breed auto relic cards. Ruined is my phrase of choice, mainly because of how awesome the card would have been without that horrible big white box behind the signature that cuts into the player’s picture. Considering how cool the relic only cards look, it makes it that much more disappointing. Im just thankful this same method was avoided on the main auto cards.

I am not sure if I am going to break any of this stuff until the National Convention in a few weeks, as I definitely want to get the packs at the show instead of getting nothing now. Looks fun, and should hold up nicely.