Topps doesn't wait until the summer to produce cards of the newest NFL stars. Hitting store shelves in May, every pack of 2007 Topps Draft Picks & Prospects Football has the company's first rookie cards, autographs and memorabilia cards of the newest batch of talent to hit the pro gridiron.
Hobby boxes of Draft Picks & Prospects (henceforth abbreviated DPP) Football hold 24 packs of five cards each and tout 24 rookie cards per box. Collectors can also expect to find at least one memorabilia card per box and an autograph in every other box.
Common Cards
Like many football card sets, DPP starts out with 100 cards devoted to NFL veterans. However, the set sticks to its "prospect" theme by using cards 51 to 100 to spotlight players who have only been in the league a year or two. This allows players like the Jets' Brad Smith to make a rare base card appearance, which is always nice.
The 2007 card design is one that I suspect will inspire a love it or hate it reaction from collectors. A five-sided picture is surrounded by stripes with a bronze border around the whole affair. The team name is done in big black letters on a metallic silver background toward the bottom.
Card backs - which also make heavy use of the bronze color - are light on stats but have very nice scouting reports on the featured player. One other positive about the commons is that Topps used some digital trickery to get players who switched teams into their new uniforms, so we get to see guys like Willis McGahee and Ahman Green in their new duds for the first time.
Topps uses the extra thick card in each pack to insert one parallel that utilizes the company's chrome technology. Regular chrome cards come in Black, Bronze, Silver (numbered to 299) and Gold (#'d to 99) varieties, and each color also has a rarer refractor counterpart. The chrome cards look sharp, especially in black.
All told, a sample box provided by Topps yielded 62 of the 100 commons, plus 11 black chrome cards, three bronze chrome cards, one black refractor and a bronze refractor.
Rookie Cards
DPP delivers on its promise of one rookie card per pack. The card design is identical to the commons with the exception of the words "2007 Draft Pick" taking the place of the team name, since these rookie cards do not have updated draft information.
Since some of the packs in my sample box contained multiple rookie cards, I actually ended up with a total of 33, including JaMarcus Russell, Brady Quinn and Adrian Peterson. The rookies also have the same chrome and refractor parallels as the commons, and my box contained four black chrome rookies, one bronze chrome, one gold chrome (Sidney Rice numbered 10/99) and a black refractor of New York Giants wide receiver Steve Smith.
Memorabilia Cards
Topps uses its relationship with the Senior Bowl to make relic cards (the company's name for memorabilia cards) for DPP Football. This is a bit of a mixed blessing, as it makes the cards unique but fails to include ome of the biggest names from the Class of 2007 because they were underclassmen (like Peterson) or did not play in the game (like Quinn).
Senior Standouts is comprised of 50 players along with a piece of jersey worn in the Senior Bowl, while Senior Standouts Combo cards offer up a pair of players and two swatches. Fifteen NFL veterans and their game-worn gear appear in Upperclassmen.
My review box contained a lone Senior Standouts card of former USC offensive lineman Ryan Kalil.
Autographed Cards
With an autographed card in every other box on average, collectors stand a pretty decent chance of finding a signature from a 2007 rookie when opening packs of DPP. The main autographed insert is Class Marks, which features 40 first-year players and comes in four different levels.
New for 2007 is All-Star Alumni, which is made up of rookies, veterans and legends who played for a big time college program. There is also a Dual version that pairs names like Joe Montana with Brady Quinn and Billy Sims with Adrian Peterson.
Finally, 25 of the 55 base rookie cards have autographed parallels numbered to 100. The checklist features numerous top picks, including Quinn, Russell, Peterson and Calvin Johnson.
The About.com sample box did contain an autographed card: a Class Marks card of former Alabama running back Kenneth Darby.