It’s the NFL offseason. The real one — that stretch in mid-summer after all the free agent and draft drama has played out but before training camps have fully ramped up to ring in the preseason.
That leaves a desert of meaningful content for a league that rarely sleeps. And in celebration of that, we’re diving deeper into For The Win’s Sartorial Saturdays Series (name is unofficial, also trademark pending). Over the past few weekends, we’ve talked about logos, helmet design and home uniforms. Today, we’re tackling the away whites (and silvers and bones) that accompany each franchise on its road trips.
As always, the bulk of these kits are pretty dang good; don’t be distressed if your team shows up lower than expected, because there’s not much distance between top 20 and top 10. Classic, clean looks are preferred. Let’s see who ranks where.
George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: Blue helmet, white jerseys, blue pants
No thank you. To all of this.
Away uniform combination: Green helmet, white jerseys, white pants
The Jets have great colors and great historic uniforms. And this is what they came up with. Huh.
Away uniform combination: Navy helmet, white jerseys, white pants
Extreme late-90s vibes from a redesign that failed to live up to its predecessor and persists, despite the Orange Crush uniforms just waiting to be brought back.
Away uniform combination: White helmet, red/white jerseys, white pants
The panels and piping showed up in 2005 and have stuck around since. It didn’t look good then, either.
Away uniform combination: Blue helmet, white jerseys, blue or white pants
The Seahawks keep evolving in hopes of matching (or setting) design trends and wind up looking immediately dated as a result. Seattle’s uniforms are different, which is nice. They’re not especially pleasant, however.
Away uniform combination: Black helmet, white jerseys, white pants
The shoulder panels of the 2000s are gone, but these uniforms are still a far cry from the sartorial. Perfection of the team’s first two decades
Away uniform combination: Burgundy helmet, white jerseys, white pants
Again, the Commanders have a lot to fix. Uniforms weren’t high on the priority list. It’s fine.
Robert Scheer/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: Black helmet, white jerseys, teal pants
Plain pants, plain jerseys, just a nothing uniform combination.
Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
Away uniform combination: Black helmet, white jerseys, black or white or purple pants
Baltimore occasionally swaps in purple pants, which boost this ranking about five spots. As is, it’s a fairly standard, boring look.
Away uniform combination: Navy helmet, white jerseys, white or navy pants
They work better with dark pants than light, even if they’re more or less generic in the world of football uniforms.
Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: Green helmet, white jerseys, white, black or green pants
Better with the green pants than the white, but either way it’s a completely reasonable uniform that looks much better in the team’s old Kelly green.
Kareem Elgazzar / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: Orange helmet, white jerseys, white pants
Your mileage may vary depending on how much you like the black/white stripe print down the sides. A little bit of orange and black goes a long way, so this is still better than when it looked as though a tiger was melting down Boomer Esiason’s body.
Away uniform combination: Silver helmet, white jerseys, white pants
The shoulder stripes have the right idea of infusing Carolina blue in bits and pieces. The rest of the kit is fairly rote and the tapered leg stripe can leave anytime.
Away uniform combination: Blue helmet, bone jerseys, bone or blue pants
A spiffy uniform and great color combination stifled by the team’s awful fruit roll-up numbers and shoulder panels.
Away uniform combination: Silver helmet, white jerseys, blue pants
The best combination of a bad situation, New England brought back the shoulder stripes to create a better look. But even this effort is going to get blown out of the water when the Patriots bring back their perfect Pat Patriot throwbacks.
Away uniform combination: Silver helmet, white jerseys, silver pants
It lacks the contrast of the team’s superior home uniforms, but Vegas’s away kit is instantly recognizable and stoic in its simplicity.
Away uniform combination: Red helmet, white jerseys, white pants
The red pops against the white thanks to the yellow highlights. It’s not complex, but it *is* aesthetically pleasing.
Away uniform combination: Yellow helmet, white jerseys, yellow pants
The white doesn’t work as well with the yellow backdrop as the team’s darker green jerseys. It’s still a classic, simple look.
Robert Scheer/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: White helmet, white jerseys, white pants
Clean and coordinated, with the pants, jerseys and helmet all sharing blue stripes. It looked good four decades ago, and it looks good now.
Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Away uniform combination: Purple helmet, white jerseys, purple or white pants
I miss the yellow number outlines of previous jerseys. But the Vikings ditched their 2000s paneling for a traditional look, and it’s paid off.
Away uniform combination: Pewter helmet, white jerseys, white or pewter pants
Tampa excised its dated, trendy calculator number jerseys for a more classic look in 2019. This was the right decision.
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Away uniform combination: Silver helmet, white jerseys, silver pants
The color scheme is nearly perfect, and there’s just the right amount of blue to make everything pop. The custom font on the numbers is a little polarizing, but all in all it’s a great look.
Away uniform combination: Silver helmet, white jerseys, silver pants
A look so nice the team deploys it for home games throughout the season as well. The blue and silver pop, creating an instantly recognizable kit.
Away uniform combination: Gold helmet, white jerseys, gold pants
Throw in the red socks, and you’ve got a perfectly balanced complement of colors against the white canvas of the jersey. San Francisco’s home kits are good; these are better.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Away uniform combination: White helmet, white jerseys, blue or white pants
Great colors, clean jersey numbers and leg-to-sleeve stripe coordination. This really makes the team’s paneled 2000s uniforms look like the barfed-up retreads they were.
Away uniform combination: White helmet, white jerseys, white or yellow pants
The Chargers in their all whites? Beautiful. The Chargers with their mustard yellow pants? Less so, but the blue in the high socks is different enough to keep from looking weird.
Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
Away uniform combination: Navy helmet, white jerseys, navy pants
Orange is used as a perfect complement in stripes and to highlight names and numbers. The rest of the fit is a navy/white/navy sandwich. A perfect look that is even better in throwback form.
Away uniform combination: White helmet, white jerseys, teal or white pants
A gorgeous color combination aided by softening the green of the team’s mid-2000s kits to create a more tropical vibe. Bring back the old Dolphin logo, and you’ll be No. 1.
Away uniform combination: Gold helmet, white jerseys, black or gold pants
Simple and clean, with a logo that connects to the city and a design that largely avoided updates since the team’s inception. There’s no reason to change it, so the Saints don’t.
Away uniform combination: Blue helmet, white jerseys, silver pants
A basic, old school look for a throwback franchise. If Daniel Jones (not pictured) can look good in these, anyone can.
Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
Away uniform combination: Orange helmet, white jerseys, orange pants
The sock stripe matches the sleeve stripe. The pants stripe matches the helmet stripe. The white allows a truly gross color combination to shine without being overpowering. Wonderful.
Away uniform combination: Black helmet, white jerseys, yellow pants
Old school perfection. Everything about this uniform is a sigil for both the city and its franchise. A look so nice Iowa copied it four decades ago and hasn’t changed a thing.
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