Ranking the NFL's best and worst alternate jerseys

When NFL teams switch up their normal uniform schemes, things can either go very well or very, very poorly.

The 2016 NFL season will be the year of the alternate jersey. A few teams wore special “color rush” uniforms last season and every team received color rush designs this year, though a few of them will not be worn. 

But it doesn’t stop there. The few teams that have alternate jerseys will also be wearing them again this year. The Steelers, for example, are sporting their ultra-recognizable alternates in Week 5. (For a full breakdown of who’s wearing what when, check out SportsLogos.net.) Some of these alternates are pretty nice, some are disastrous. Let’s rank the five best and five worst. 

All 32 2016 NFL color rush uniforms, ranked

#32 — Jacksonville Jaguars

These didn’t look good last year and they don’t look good this year.

#31 — Miami Dolphins

The offensive line is going to look like five traffic cones.

#30 — Los Angeles Rams

That’s too much yellow.

#29 — Washington Redskins

Thankfully, these ketchup and mustard kits won’t see the field this season.

#28 — Seattle Seahawks

Seattle clearly stole these from an arena football team.

#27 — New York Jets

The Jets won’t actually be wearing these this season, because of the red-green colorblindness issue.

#26 — San Francisco 49ers

These would look much better if the helmet matched.

#25 — Cleveland Browns

This might be the best possible combination of Browns uniform. Sadly, they won’t be wearing them because the Ravens are wearing a dark purple.

#24 — Indianapolis Colts

Have you ever wondered what Andrew Luck would look like as a Smurf?

#23 — Dallas Cowboys

This is another rehash from last season. Not a bad look.

#22 — Denver Broncos

The best part about these is the throwback helmet design.

#21 — Cincinnati Bengals

It’s weird seeing the Bengals in a color other than black or orange. Weird, but pretty refreshing.

#20 — Green Bay Packers

This is definitely better than an all-yellow uniform.

#19 — Philadelphia Eagles

Black and dark green is not a great combination.

#18 — Baltimore Ravens

Purple is tough to pull off, but the gold accents are pretty sweet.

#17 — Houston Texans

The Texans already have an all-blue combo, but this swaps the white numbers for red ones. They won’t wear them in 2016 because their color rush game is against the blue-clad Patriots.

#16 — Oakland Raiders

The silver numbers might be a challenge for fans in the cheap seats, and maybe even on TV.

#15 — Buffalo Bills

The only problem when the Bills wore these against the Jets last year was for color blind fans. Otherwise, these are pretty sharp.

#14 — Chicago Bears

This blue-on-blue combination makes a lot of sense.

#13 — Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The only people not happy with these are the ones who were hoping to see the creamsicles make a comeback.

#12 — Kansas City Chiefs

These aren’t all that different from their usual uniforms.

#11 — Arizona Cardinals

It would have been easy for the Cards to go with all red. This is much more creative, and pretty well executed.

#10 — San Diego Chargers

It’s a shame they didn’t got with powder blue, but these are still pretty nice.

#9 — New England Patriots

The old school stripes on the shoulder are a nice touch.

#8 — Tennessee Titans

The Titans have one of the best shades of blue in the league.

#7 — Minnesota Vikings

The best color rush jerseys are the ones with gold numbers.

#6 — Atlanta Falcons

The problem with the Falcons’ normal jerseys is the bit of white on the sleeves. This solves that.

#5 — Carolina Panthers

These looked pretty dope against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving last year.

#4 — Detroit Lions

There was a rumor that the Lions would wear red, but these make more sense.

#3 — New York Giants

The blue numbers are a nice throwback to the Lawrence Taylor era.

#2 — Pittsburgh Steelers

These are the uniforms the Steelers were always meant to wear.

#1 — New Orleans Saints

The gold accents are amazing.

The Best

5. Cardinals

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Sure, it doesn’t make much sense for the Cardinals to wear a color other than red, but this black and white combination with red accents looks pretty sharp.

4. Bengals

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Orange is a tough color to pull off, but the Bengals have improved on some earlier disastrous attempts. They used to wear black jerseys with orange pants, or orange jerseys and black pants. The white pants they wear now make these much more palatable. 

3. Texans

Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images

The Texans call these their “Battle Red” jerseys. In a league dominated by muted colors—like Houston’s usual navy blue—this is a welcome change.

2. Panthers

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Carolina’s color rush uniform is this jersey with the matching pants. The Panthers will wear it again in Week 11 this year, but it’s a bit over the top. This blue jersey, grey pants combo (coming to your TV screen in Week 5) has just the right amount of color.

1. Dolphins

Miami Herald/Getty Images

These 1966 throwback jerseys made their debut last season and will be back for two games this year. Their other aqua jerseys look too much like a minor league baseball team, but these are a shade or two darker. It’s the stripe on the pants that really does it for me. 

The Worst

5. Eagles

Elsa/Getty Images

These jerseys are like that time you went to a friend’s Bar Mitzvah wearing black shoes with navy blue pants. Black and dark green don’t mix.  

4. 49ers

Michael Zagaris/Getty Images

The Niners fall victim here to the NFL rule that requires teams to use the same helmets all year. A black helmet (matte black, preferably) would have made these pretty sharp. 

3. Packers

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

It never works when teams try to wear uniforms styled after what they wore back when jerseys were made out of potato sacks, or whatever. 

2. Steelers

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Again, I bet this would look pretty cool as a sweater, but it doesn’t work as a form-fitting jersey. 

1. Browns

Jason Miller/Getty Images

 Being named after the dullest color in the world makes designing a uniform tough, but this one is especially bad. The orange jerseys actually look better when paired with the brown pants. When the Browns revealed their new jerseys before last season, one of the color combos was an unholy orange on orange. Let’s just be glad they haven’t worn that combo yet.