Uni Watch Power Rankings for This Season’s NFL Throwbacks

With the regular season now completed, let’s assess the huge crop of retro designs that were on the field in 2023.

As I mentioned in my recent “2023 in Review” column, the biggest uniform story of the year, from my perspective, was the NFL’s retro renaissance. A whopping 20 teams wore throwback uniforms for at least one of their games this season. That’s up from 13 in 2022 and 11 in 2021, which really shows the impact of the one-shell rule being lifted. In fact, it’s the highest number of throwback-clad teams since 1994, when nearly every team went retro as part of the league’s 75th-anniversary celebration.

With the regular season now in the books, I decided to rank all 20 of the throwback sets. Seems like a fun little project to tide us over until Wild Card Weekend, right? But before I get to the rankings, let’s establish some background context. First, it’s worth noting that some of this season’s retro designs were making their throwback debuts, while others were already well-established as throwback designs. Here’s the breakdown:

• Four of this season’s retro uniforms had never before appeared as throwbacks (Eagles, Jets, Titans/Oilers, Seahawks).

• One had appeared previously as a throwback, but with a different helmet (Browns).

• Two more had appeared as throwbacks prior to the advent of the one-shell rule but had been on hiatus since then (Bucs, Vikings).

• The other 13 had been in recent throwback circulation (Bears, Colts, Cowboys, Dolphins, Falcons, 49ers, Giants, Lions, Packers, Patriots, Raiders, Saints, Steelers).

I should also note here that there are very few bad uniforms on this list. That’s a good thing, of course, but it makes for a tricky ranking process. The qualitative distance between, say, the No. 5 and No. 12 spots on this list — or, for that matter, from the top slot to the bottom slot — is much smaller than it would be in most other rankings, so keep that in mind when reading the list.

That said, I understand that the whole point of reading something like this is to feel affirmed and validated when you agree with the writer’s picks, and to feel outraged and argumentative when you disagree. So if you fall into the latter camp, feel free to voice your displeasure in the comments.

Okay, enough preliminaries. Here’s the list, from worst to first:

20. Green Bay Packers

Based on: 1953.

Last throwback appearance before this season: 2022.

My take: As a lifelong fan of green, it pains me to say this, but here it is: These are the worst throwbacks in the NFL today. Mono-green is only slightly better than mono-anything else.

What they should do with it: Scrap it and just skip throwbacks altogether. The Packers’ primary uniforms are among the best in the league and already look old-school. Just stick with that.

19. Detroit Lions

Based on: 1950s.

Last throwback appearance before this season: 2022.

My take: I know a lot of fans like seeing these every year on Thanksgiving, but they’ve always left me cold. No helmet logo, no TV numbers, no pants piping, no outlining or shadowing on the numbers, no sock stripes — it’s all too plain.

What they should do with it: If they want to keep trotting these out on Turkey Day, I guess that’s alright. But I kinda wish they’d just scrap them altogether.