Panini has gotten into the habit of photographing events lately, including ones like happened this past weekend. During those events, Panini spends a lot of time getting sets like NT and Flawless signed, which means previews are here for a set that many collectors look forward to every year. I thought 2016 NT was a good looking set, as was 2015. Its like they are finally getting their shit together on these high end products, and I couldnt be happier. If we could make it so that there were no more stickers in a box that costs this much, I might be a lot happier than I am.

This year’s sets have some very interesting small changes and most of them look pretty good. I think the RPA design is another in a longer line of good looking versions, and much to my appreciation, it looks like the base version is horizontal in orientation. This means the design has a lot more room to breathe, instead of seeing photos squashed against borders.

As they have since the beginning, the booklets also look great, with a big focus on a minimal design, and big areas to sign. This hasnt always been the case, but Im glad it is this time around. Booklets havent really caught on with NT, which is unfortunate in a lot of different ways. Not only have the booklets been consistently good looking since they began their run in the product, but they have some really nice patches to boot. People are way too fucking involved in outdated “true RC” designation bullshit and I can say there are few things collectors do that bother me more. If people just appreciated and paid a premium for the better looking cards in any given product, things would be a lot different in the way the companies produce sets.

Overall, this is looking like a good year of NT, but it all depends on a few things. How many of the goofy ass posed photos they use and how much of the set adheres to the same quality set by the previews we have already gotten. Lots on the line with a rookie class that had so many injuries to what seem like special players.

Here are the photos: