The Senior Bowl is in the rearview and the NFL Scouting Combine is coming up at the next exit, which means NFL draft season is in full swing.
For crazed uniform and logo enthusiasts like yours truly, one of the annual traditions of draft season is grading the NFL’s yearly on-stage draft cap design. Each of the 32 teams has its own iteration of the same base design that will be worn on stage by players selected in the draft.
The draft is still 77 days away, but we already have our first look at the New York Jets’ official on-stage draft cap design for the 2025 proceedings. The sneak peek is courtesy of Kendall Valenzuela of Fantasy Life, who shared photos of the draft caps on X. The official New Era Caps were shown in an exclusive first look at the pre-Super Bowl Radio Row in New Orleans.
Fashion review time!
The first thing we notice right off the bat is that the Jets (or whoever is in charge of these designs) opted to go with their alternate logo (a side profile of a jet, borrowing the element from their primary logo that sits atop the “Jets” wordmark) rather than their primary logo. Personally, I’m a fan of the alternate logo’s usage here. Its simplicity suits it well for a cap logo, especially with the bold embroidery used on this cap. I am not always the biggest fan of this logo, as it has a bit too much empty space within the oval for my taste, but this is an appealing way to utilize it.
Color-wise, the Jets opted for a green bill and a black cap with white lettering. I’m scoring this choice a 10-of-10. I love when the Jets go with a black theme and feature white lettering with green accents. This trifecta keeps the spirit of the team’s identity while spotlighting the text.
However, the black cap with a colored bill is not unique to the Jets. It appears that every team is using this combination, even if the color black is not a core part of their identity.
This year’s draft caps feature one of the most basic designs we have seen in quite some time. There are no flashy elements on the cap, such as 2024’s state outlines, 2023’s logos within the lettering, or 2022’s scripted city names in the foreground of the team names. Rather, we merely have the team nickname arched atop the logo with the city name written below it. While the simplicity is appreciated, this is very unimaginative compared to previous years, which is disappointing.
The Jets’ cap simply reads “New York” on the bottom, but some other teams opted to go with the city and state abbreviation, which is a nice touch.
However, there is apparently some imagination in the form of golden pins that depict a symbol unique to the team. The Jets’ cap features the Statue of Liberty’s torch, while the Bills’ cap, for instance, features a buffalo. It is unclear whether these will be sold with the caps or worn by the players on stage, but they offer a personal touch for each team. They work well alongside this very clean, simplistic design that leaves a lot of blank space.
Most Jets fans are probably more concerned about who will be wearing the hat rather than how it looks, but hey, we have 77 more days to talk about that. For now, more pressing matters must take precedence. The NFL draft caps are here and it’s time to give a rating. Mine? A cool 5/10. Not offensive, not inspiring.
What do you think? Was I too harsh? Or too forgiving?
