After using Topps Draft Picks & Prospects as its first football brand for the past few years, Topps switches it up for 2008 with Topps Rookie Progression. The new set repackages some familiar concepts - like a rookie in every pack - and adds more relics and autographs.
Boxes of 2008 Topps Rookie Progression Football come with 20 five-card packs. Inside, collectors can expect 20 rookie cards, two relic (memorabilia) cards and two autographed cards.
Base Cards and Parallels
The 220 base set subjects in Rookie Progression appear on cards with a vaguely retro feel thanks to a design that resembles an old time television. That's due to a slightly rounded frame for the photos, which are set against a greenish background. Player info is contained in rectangles at the top, and card backs have nice write-ups for each player.
Topps originally announced 55 rookies, but the set shipped out with a total of 71. They fall one per pack and are pictured in their college uniforms, though they don't include draft information. The 149 veterans include some that were touched up by Topps' digital artists to appear in their new uniforms.
Rookie Progression also marks the debut of the Topps Player Collection, which is a separate numbering system for 30 NFL stars that will run through several of the company's 2008 football brands. Player collectors will find their lives made easier, as the players will have the same base card number in each participating product: Drew Brees will be #1, Adrian Peterson will be #26, etc.
On the parallel front, Rookie Progression carries on a tradition from its predecessor and uses thick parallels in place of decoy cards. There are four levels, with numbering ranging from 389 for Bronze to 99 for Platinum.
I opened a random box for this review and found 54 veterans and 24 rookies, including Matt Ryan, Brian Brohm and Jonathan Stewart. I also pulled six total parallels, the best of which was a Bronze Chad Henne.
Relic Cards and Autographs
This is one area that improved quite a bit from Draft Picks & Prospects, with a pair of relics and autographs in each box. The standalone Progression Relics come in single, double, triple and quad varieties, while Progression Signatures echo all of them except for the quads. The autograph checklists are heavy on rookies, but there are some exceptions - like a Dan Marino/John Elway/Joe Montana triple signature card.
Some of the extra-thick Progression Legend, Veteran and Rookie cards also have relic parallels. And Senior Letter Autographed Jersey Patches may be a mouthful, but they're also pretty cards that feature players from the 2008 Senior Bowl autographing an entire letter from their nameplates.
Finally, 25 rookies have autographed versions of their rookie cards - a feature that Topps has been using often across multiple sports. These are numbered to 999 or less.
My sample box delivered just as advertised with two relics (a Progression Legend Gold Relic Steve Young and a Progression Single Relic Leodis McKelvin) and two autographs (an Autographed Draft Pick Variation Chris Johnson and a Progression Rookie Signature De'Cody Fagg).
Insert Cards
As mentioned above, Rookie Progression has simple extra-thick insert cards that take the place of base card parallels in some packs. They come in Legend (though Topps fudged a bit with some current players here), Veteran and Rookie flavors. The regular inserts are unnumbered, but they also can be found in the same parallel colors as the base cards.
I pulled nine insert cards, most notably a Platinum Progression Rookies Brian Brohm numbered 26/50.
The Last Word
Rookie Progression Football still seems to be lacking a little bit of identity or a definitive hook, but that happens sometimes with new brands. It's a step up from Draft Picks & Prospects thanks to a visual facelift and improved content that shows off more veterans and retired stars without skimping on the rookies. For an early season football card fix, Rookie Progression is a solid solution.
