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Who are the Best Football Rookie Cards From Every NFL Year?

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Sports card collectors need to know what the best football rookie cards are, so they can improve their collection, and make it one of the greatest NFL huddles ever made!

Most of the sports card links on this page will take you to eBay. That means I will get a commission on the sales from this page. If you end up buying from these links, I personally thank you for supporting my website! Even if you don’t buy anything, thank you for reading my article! Enjoy!

As you might know, we’ve already looked back over the past 70-plus years to track down the top cards from the other sports:

Those two articles rank among my most popular on this site, as collectors understand what a tremendous sports card collecting tool these bookmarked articles can be! I use each of these articles myself, as I try to upgrade my sports card collection. I’ll be using this one, too, as I still need many of the best football rookie cards from Topps and Panini (and more), so that my collection can become something I’m even more proud of.

One of the reasons I make these articles is because I want to help sports card collectors who have recently gotten back into the hobby, like myself! I wanted to go back and collect the the best football rookie cards I missed out on back when I wasn’t collecting!

What I really love doing is buying old blasters and hobby boxes of older products from DACardWorld.com, hoping to pull these cards myself! But you need to know which years you should buy to track down the best football rookie cards you want to pull!

I used PSA’s card values, along with the listings on both CardboardConnection.com and DACardWorld.com to find the best football rookie cards worth owning. I also try to denote whether that person is already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame or not.

Starting All the Way Back In 1956!

I will update this article frequently, as some player’s ascend in value and some decline. The most recent seasons will have a higher number of rookies to collect because we’re still waiting to see if they will fulfill their promise. As the seasons wear on, I’ll remove the rookies that have fallen by the wayside.

This only includes flagship sets, like Topps, Prizm and Upper Deck. I won’t be referring to Topps Chrome, Finest, Fleer Ultra, Mosaic or any series like that. (Prizm became the flagship of Panini in 2012, so there are a few years when they weren’t the top set in football, despite Panini owning the license.)

Most card images provided by BuySportsCards.com.

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1956 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1957 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1958 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards Jim Brown

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1959 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1960 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1961 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1962 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1963 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1964 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1964 Philadelphia Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1965 Topps Football

Topps produced “Tall Boys” for this specific football season, measuring 2-1/2” by 5 inches, which makes them difficult to get raw in good grades because they don’t fit normal card-collecting boxes from the past 60 years. They’re absolutely beautiful cards, but you’ll want to buy these graded if possible.

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1965 Philadelphia Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1966 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1966 Philadelphia Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1967 Topps Football

There aren’t really any notable rookie cards from this set.

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1967 Philadelphia Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1968 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1969 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1970 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1971 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1972 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1973 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1974 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1975 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1976 Topps Football

1976 Topps Walter Payton Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1977 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1978 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1979 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1980 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1981 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards 1981 Topps Joe Montana

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1982 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1983 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1984 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best USFL Rookie Cards From 1984 Topps Football

Check out my article on what Topps could have done if they combined the NFL and USFL cards into one set!

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1985 Topps Football

Best USFL Rookie Cards From 1985 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1986 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1987 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1988 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1989 Topps Football

1989 Topps Traded:

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1990 Topps Football

1990 Topps Traded:

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1991 Topps Stadium Club Football

(There were no great rookie cards among the regular Topps issue, so we went with Topps Stadium Club instead.)

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1992 Topps Football

There aren’t really any notable rookie cards from this set.

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1993 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1994 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1995 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1996 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1997 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best Football Rookie Cards From 1998 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 1999 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2000 Topps Football

Here’s a non-Topps card that is essential to any football card collection:

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2001 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2002 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 2003 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2004 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2005 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2006 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2007 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2008 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2009 Topps Football

Panini got the league and player union licenses to make trading cards for the NFL in 2009. But Topps was still making football cards too, at this point. Both card manufacturers would own NFL licenses from 2009 to 2016, so we’re going to stay with Topps for our rookie card choices for a few more years.

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2010 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards From 2011 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2012 Topps Football

While both Topps and Panini were still creating cards, 2012 was the first year Panini produced what would become their flagship set: Panini Prizm. But we’re sticking with Topps for this list through 2016.

Best Football Rookie Cards From 2013 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2014 Topps Football

Best Football Rookie Cards

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2015 Topps Football

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2016 Panini Prizm Football

Panini got the sole license to produce football cards with NFL logos and player names in 2016, which meant Topps wouldn’t have a football product for the first time since 1955. Prizm is a chromium card that feels like a Topps Chrome card. When we refer to Prizm cards, we’re only referring to base cards, like the rest of this article, but the Prizm Silver cards are more desirable, and they have the same card number.

Best Football Rookie Cards From 2017 Panini Prizm Football

(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)

(View blaster box pricing on eBay!)

Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2018 Panini Prizm Football

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Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2019 Panini Prizm Football

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Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2020 Panini Prizm Football

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Best Football Rookie Cards

Best Football Rookie Cards From 2021 Panini Prizm Football

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Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2022 Panini Prizm Football

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Best NFL Rookie Cards From 2023 Panini Prizm Football

(View hobby box pricing on eBay!)

Those are the best football rookie cards in all the land! Don’t forget to check out these other articles, too:

If I missed one of the best football rookie cards, please let me know by tweeting at me @DavidGonos, or by mentioning it in one of my YouTube videos!

author avatar
David Gonos
David Gonos spent 5 years as a CBSSports.com Senior Fantasy Writer and three more years writing with SI.com. Over the past 17 years, his work has been published on NFL.com, MLB.com, FanDuel, FoxSports.com and USA Today. Since 2001, he has been tracking down the Top 50-plus Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools online. You can contact David Gonos here.
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