The NFC West is tough to talk about as a Packers fan. An NFC West team seems to regularly be our undoing, so talking about these uniforms leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth even if the division is, as a whole, pretty good-looking.
Normally we have two rules when it comes to these:
1 - The uniforms have to have appeared in a game. No concepts or yet-to-be-worn combinations. The uniforms also have to be a part of a team’s current uniform rotation. If they’ve discontinued a particular set they’re not going to be a part of our conversation.
2 - Alternates are okay, but no throwbacks. Throwbacks can be some of the best and worst-looking uniforms out there, but they’re generally designed with such specific parameters in mind that they’re almost too unique to consider here. We may do a future series on throwbacks.
However, given that the Cardinals have some brand new threads this year, we have to give a little bit on that first one. We’ll hold true for the rest of the teams here, though.
Before we dive in, a small announcement: I’m going to be resting this series after this week. Starting next week we’ll be launching our weekly picks column, so we’ll leave the AFC uniform evaluations until after the 2023 football season. On to the uniforms!
Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals are tricky because we actually haven’t seen any of their uniforms on the field; they unveiled a completely new set earlier this year. And aside from a couple of truly embarrassing elements (Bird Gang! Protect the Nest!), they’re pretty uninspiring.
I think their all-white look is the best of what they’ve unveiled so far. A combination of their red jerseys with white pants and red socks would be better, but this is at least passable.
Their all-red combo, though, is bad. It looks like a first draft of a uniform, one they’ve neglected to put other elements on. Why no pants stripe? Why just plain red socks? Why all red instead of something more traditional?
Surprising myself, their all-black alternate is pretty good!
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