Baseball season is well underway, the NHL playoffs are heating up and the NBA postseason tips off this weekend. Yet football collectors know that a wave of new football cards are just about to hit.

Early season football releases are great ways to get autographs of the incoming rookies who will be joining the NFL when the draft takes place April 26 and 27. As usual, SA-GE has the first cards on the shelves, and Press Pass will be joining them with their first draft pick set any day now. These sets aren't licensed by the NFL, but they have loads of signatures, plus they're fun for college collectors because they picture the players in their college uniforms.

The three manufacturers that make NFL football cards will also be weighing in soon. Donruss has Playoff Prestige on tap for May, which is almost always the first set to include draft information on its rookie cards. Topps has an all new brand called Rookie Progression Football which should be interesting.

But the biggest change comes from Upper Deck, which is bringing its Draft Edition Football to stores before the draft. It will feature the very first NFL rookie cards of players like Rashard Mendenhall (pictured here) and offer five rookie autographs per box.

I'll be weighing in with the top 10 rookies to collect for 2008 right after the draft, but you can check out how I fared with last year's class at the link below. Some of my picks let me down (I'm looking at you Robert Meachem), but I did manage to do alright with my top pick, a guy you may have heard of named Adrian Peterson.

• Top 10 2007 NFL Rookies to Collect
• Press Release: 2008 Upper Deck Draft Edition Football

Image courtesy of and copyright Upper Deck.