Let’s Rank the 2019 NFL Draft Hats: The Good, The Bad and The Embroidered

Hannah Abrams

The MLB season might have kicked off last week (here we go, Phillies!), but it’s the NFL that has our attention this week. New Era designed this year’s official 2019 NFL draft hats, so you know what that means: a good ol’ fashioned Promo Marketing ranking!

The 2018 NFL draft hat collection will be hard to be beat, but this year’s collection is going for a different look.

“This idea as we go through to celebrate the past of the NFL and innovation of where it’s moving, we really wanted to start with where the game began within each local community,” Ryan DiNunzio, New Era’s director of football, told Sports Illustrated. “It’s a unique way to say this is where we started, this is who we are, this is what we’re about, this is the community we represent. At the same time it tells a separate story of welcoming a new member into that community. Really trying to tell this message of this is where we’re going, this is who we represent and welcome into the community.​”

With that in mind, let’s check out the best and the worst from this year’s collection.

The Best 2019 NFL Draft Hats

1. Arizona Cardinals

We appreciate this bold, eye-catching look. The embroidery on the main logo really pops, and the backing graphics make subtle use of the sun-ray design from Arizona’s state flag without going overboard (as we’ll see soon).

2. Baltimore Ravens

The mascot embroidery couldn’t be more perfect. A nice, big logo that lets the details of the Raven shine.

3. Buffalo Bills

https://twitter.com/bonesj0nes/status/1113061990342123521

We’d become Bills fans just for that hat brim.

4. Chicago Bears

The inclusion of the stars on the side of the hat is a nice subtle nod to Chicago’s city flag.

5. Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins are getting a lot of hate for this look, but we actually appreciate the color detailing, and the half palm tree design. Nothing says leisure like Miami, and nothing says Miami like palm tree graphics.

The Worst 2019 NFL Draft Hats

1. Carolina Panthers

Good hat for scrapbooking. Bad hat for draft day. We appreciate what the designers were going for, but there’s just too much crammed into one small space here.

2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It almost looks like there’s a subway map on the brim. The interior flag detail on the tag is neat, but not enough to salvage the overall design.

3. Cleveland Browns

It just looks sad.

4. Detroit Lions

They almost had it, but they did too much.

5. Green Bay Packers

This is a bit of a snooze fest. It just kinda looks like a normal Green Bay Packers hat, with nothing that makes it special.

6. Los Angeles Chargers

What happened here exactly? Is this a nod to Los Angeles or baby shark? We can’t decide.

7. Kansas City Chiefs

That backing design looks good as a smaller element on the flag, but here it’s taking up so much real estate it ends up being distracting. Plus, it looks like a tribal tat.

Related posts