In the midst of trying to stay on top of the myriad of releases that the companies have put out in football this year, I think its time to call out where they have failed so far this year. Its not always the design or the box break that does it either, but rather a combination of factors.
2014 Panini Hot Rookies
Design Grade: F
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: F
There are no words for how bad this shit is. Hands down, Panini couldnt pay me to open boxes of this stuff, as both the design and format were horrendous. Airbrushed sideline shots, foil stamping to cover up the score logo, and colored foil are worthy of the garbage bin more than the bargain bin. They meant this to be a hobby type version of Score, but who thought that was a brand worth doubling down on? Barf.
Evidence:
2014 Panini Hot Rookies Kelvin Benjamin Auto
2014 Panini Hot Rookies Jeremy Hill Auto
2014 Panini Hot Rookies Jadeveon Clowney Auto
2014 Bowman Sterling Football
Design Grade: D
Break Grade: D-
Overall Grade: D-
This is one product that I have no clue why it is still around. Honestly just a horrible format, a horrible price, and this year a horrible design. For $250+ at release, you are given hits that can be found in boxes at a fraction of the price. Yuck. Stickers are all over this product, which makes little sense considering the other sets that have been hard signed for a cheaper price at an earlier release.
Evidence:
2014 Bowman Sterling Drew Brees Auto Red /99
2014 Bowman Sterling Odell Beckham Purple Wave Auto
2014 Bowman Sterling Mike Evans/Kelvin Benjamin Dual Relic Auto Pulsar
2014 Absolute Memorabilia
Design Grade: B
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: D+
If you are like me, you have to be curious why Panini would think to release a set based on a type of card that no longer has any value. The jersey card has been dead for years, and yet Absolute is stuffed to the gills with them. Even the better autographs have no value, and the foil presentation does nothing for the look. The cards look good for what Absolute has delivered in the past, but trying to sell this off as a rebranding is a joke. Doesnt help that many of the autographs were sticker dumps of non-rookie players who have no business being in a product that costs as much as this crap does.
Evidence:
2014 Absolute Odell Beckham Quad Relic Auto
2014 Absolute Johnny Manziel Six Relic Tools of the Trade
2014 Absolute John Elway Ink Auto
2014 Topps Chrome Football
Design Grade: A-
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: C-
It pains me to put this set on the list, but I cant say it wasnt one of the most dismal box breaks of the year. Because the production run was drastically increased this year, Chrome fell victim to entire case runs without any good autographs. Although the design is still awesome, and there were REALLY nice cards in the product, things just didnt bode well for one of my favorite products of the year.
Evidence:
2014 Topps Chrome Mike Evans Auto Pink Refractor /75
2014 Topps Chrome Davante Adams Gold Refractor Auto /10
2014 Topps Chrome Brandin Cooks 1985 Throwback Auto /15
2014 Panini Playbook
Design Grade: C-
Break Grade: D-
Overall Grade: D+
They took out the guaranteed booklet auto relic this year, and added a new hot rookies parallel auto for some stupid reason. Even though there were some cool cards, the box break was absolutely brutal all around. Who doesnt love opening a box and getting a hot rookies scrub auto as your hit for the box. Its not even like they added cards from a good product! How much better would Contenders preview tickets have been instead? Even more appalling are the single acetate cards which Panini thought would make good use of the acetate for the booklets signed at the premiere.
Evidence:
2014 Playbook Jimmy Garoppolo Booklet Auto Patch
2014 Playbook Teddy Bridgewater Trapped Acetate Auto
2014 Playbook Khalil Mack Hot Rookies Orange Parallel
2014 Bowman Chrome
Design Grade: B
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: D+
This had potential with a cool looking design and a build off of a popular product from earilier in the year. Instead this was a relative sticker dump with as bad a break as Topps Chrome. Big let downs were everywhere, as Topps Chrome at least had a majority of hard signed cards with no redemptions.
Evidence:
2014 Bowman Chrome Odell Beckham Auto Refractor
2014 Bowman Chrome Teddy Bridgewater Red Refractor Auto /25
2014 Panini Prizm
Design Grade: F
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: F
Not only were the cards uglier than the Colts offense in the AFC championship game, but it had a terrible box break to boot. The break content with 80 million parallels, and hordes of sticker scrub autos left a shit streak on the shelves of the shops that stocked it. Just a terrible product all around, selling below dealer cost almost from the get go.
Evidence:
2014 Prizm Jeremy Hill Finite Auto 1/1
2014 Prizm Demarco Murray Auto Die Cut Military Parallel
2014 Prizm Teddy Bridgewater Hippie-Fractor Auto
2014 Panini Totally Certified
Design Grade: F
Break Grade: F
Overall Grade: F
I think this should be a top contender for worst of the year and I am not kidding about that. It looks like shit, breaks like shit, and has for years. It should have been axed years ago, but Panini has no idea how to build a card release calendar, so here it is. The design of the rookie patch autos is so bad, I cant even begin to describe it. Leave it to Panini to name a set “Awesome Autographs.”
Evidence:
2014 Totally Certified Andrew Luck Awesome Autographs
2014 Totally Certified Odell Beckham Auto Rookie Patch
2014 Totally Certified Odell Beckham Auto Rookie Penmanship
Dont worry, there wasnt all bad news, and Im sure these werent the only bad products of the year. Ill be back tomorrow with my best products of the year.