This is one of those legacy sets that a lot of people look forward to every year. Its not a real anticipation that I share normally, but I think they did a pretty good job making this set look good this year, as long as you overlook the horrific gory car accident that is the Pen Pal signatures. Considering we had Elite Draft so recently release, I cant understand this strategy, but that is why I think the NCAA license is such a huge fucking waste.

Here are some of the bigger cards up so far:

2017 Elite Leonard Fournette TOTC Auto /99

2017 Elite Mitchell Trubisky Auto Turn of the Century /49

2017 Elite Deshaun Watson Auto Turn of the Century /49

2017 Elite Mitch Trubisky / Deshone Kizer Dual Auto

Ill start with the good, which is the overall look of the base cards and the rookie autographs. Although I hate all the crazy ass patterns they have such a boner for, they are limited to a small area on the design of the cards. In person they look a bit better than if the whole card was seizure inducing, but its lost among the insane amount of foil they are using in these products.

Here is my whole complaint, as it has been for years. FOIL IS TO BE USED IN FUCKING MODERATION. If you use foilboard I automatically start with a lower score than if you actually took the time to design a good looking design. This whole set is foil. The foil is foiled. The foiled foil has additional foil. Its nuts.

Moving onto the Pen Pals, this is where I just cant comprehend how a card designer sits at their desk and thinks these cards are good looking and worth making. Add in they have now been done for two straight years, and I just want a mental evaluation completed over in Texas. Seriously, its like some dude challenged them to create cards that resembled security ID badges from work. What a fucking joke.

I think Elite has a unique plus of being the first product of the rookies in their NFL jerseys, which means a lot can be overlooked. At the same time, we have been spoon fed NCAA garbage for so long, they may see benefit to going this direction. I just want good looking autographed cards, which Topps never had a problem delivering. EVER. Panini seems to be a blind squirrel looking for the nuts they hid in a tree that was cut down months ago.

Too bad really, because we are stuck with them for so many more years.