Pack War: 2021 Donruss

Folks, I can't believe it, but I've found more 2021 football cards at the local Walmart! This is only the second time since the pandemic hit. I picked up three jumbo packs of Donruss football last week. I don't typically love Donruss base cards, but the inserts are often interesting. These are probably just one-off packs, so I was just hoping to get some good cards to fit my collection. We'll take a look at these three packs in competition.

Each pack came with base, three rookies, three or four SP photo variations, four blue Press Proofs, and an insert or two.

Base Cards

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

The way I'm scoring this is just rank order. Pack 2 is weak here, with Tiki Barber as the legend and two defenders I don't collect in the top of the most desirable base cards. Pack 1 has Brady and Namath, one of the hottest of today's QBs in Josh Allen, and two members of the 2010s All-Decade team. (Side note: why is the Patriot legend card Brady when he is still active and has a card with a different team? Odd choice.) But legend Brett Favre, three All-Decade performers, a Heisman winner, and one more Packer give Pack 3 the win.

Base Scores: Pack 3=3

                      Pack 1=2

                      Pack 2=1 

 

 Rookies

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

Nothing great here. The biggest name is obviously Justin Fields, but that doesn't necessarily sway this Packers fan. But looking at the other rookies, there is only one other first rounder (Jamin Davis). He is paired with late-round Packer pick Kylin Hill, but I don't know if the two of them together overcome Fields. Pack 1 features two second-rounders. Here's how I would score it.

 

Rookie Scores: Pack 2=3

                         Pack 3=2

                         Pack 1=1 

SP Photo Variations

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

 

The SPs are kind of lame. There are 50 in the set, and pretty much all of them are helmetless photos. They're all pretty big names, though. Let's break these down. Pack 1 has three cards for my collection: Manning, Hopkins, and Gronk, with Manning the big one for me. Pack 2 has two cards I'll add to my collection, and Davante Adams is the biggie. Pack 3 has three for my official collections (Moss and Brady), but my favorite card is Brees in a ballcap, so that one is a keeper, too. Final rankings:

SP Scores: Pack 3=3

                  Pack 1=2

                  Pack 2=1

Press Proof Blue

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

If you like parallels, have I got some pulls for you! Pack 1 is a Jaguar QB bonanza, but that's surprisingly a good thing. Team legend card Mark Brunell teams with #1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence for a strong pack. Pack 2 has superathlete DK Metcalf and a blue parallel of a Brady SP. Pack 3 has another MVS (that's two appearances for him in this pack) and a rookie offensive lineman who is coming on strong the past couple of games, Alijah-Vera Tucker. So, who wins: Trevor Lawrence or Brady SP? I was originally more excited about Brady, but then I saw that this Lawrence card sold for $30 after he picked up his first win yesterday. Theoretically, I could pay for all of these cards and then some if I were to sell it (but it's not for sale). Add in running mate Brunell, who is not someone I collect but someone I have always liked, and I'll give the slight edge to Pack 1

Blue Scores: Pack 1=3

                      Pack 2=2

                      Pack 3=1 

Inserts

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

Well, the inserts are shiny. That's not a bad way to close out this war. Pack 1 doesn't win this one. A fourth-round rookie doesn't compete with any of the other players. Pack 2 contained only one insert, but it was a solid Legend Series insert of Emmitt Smith. Pack 3 is teaming up Hall of Famer Randy Moss with current Dominator Tyreek Hill. All three cards fit in my collection, but I value Emmitt above both Moss and Hill. So. . . 

Insert Scores: Pack 2=3

                       Pack 3=2

                       Pack 1=1

Let's add them up. Pack 1 scored 9 points. Pack 2 scored 10. And Pack 3--carried by Packers Brett Favre and Kylin Hill, and Drew Brees/Tom Brady SPs--scored 11 for the win. 

I'm keeping all that I specifically mentioned fit my collections. If I didn't say I was keeping it, it's for trade. So if you see something you like, let me know.

The Franchise 9: Los Angeles Chargers

 

 

The last time we did this, we saw the Rams' top nine players in Super Bowl Era history. Let's stay at SoFi Stadium and hit the crosstown Chargers. The Chargers don't have the same long franchise history and the same level of success over the years that the Rams have had, but they always seem to field a consistently good team that never makes it over the hump. As I put together this team, I found that the strong suit for the Chargers is typically the offense. This makes sense, considering that coach Don Coryell developed his pioneering air attack in San Diego. It's almost team tradition now to have a high-octane offense now.

1. Dan Fouts, QB (2013 Prizm Decade Dominance)

Speaking of Air Coryell, it didn't work without a quarterback who can sling it. That's what Dan Fouts was. When he retired, he was second in NFL history in passing yards and fourth in passing touchdowns. He led the NFL in passing yards four straight seasons from 1979-1982. He earned two All-Pro nominations, a spot on the 1980s All-Decade Team, and a bust in Canton.

2. Philip Rivers, QB (2013 Topps Strata Orange)

But was Fouts the best Charger QB? Philip Rivers may have something to say about that. Statistically, he is ahead of Fouts is every category. He has more career Approximate Value than Fouts. He played in two more Pro Bowls than Fouts. I know the two eras are very different, which makes comparison difficult. I'm not going to pronounce one better than the other here because my purpose is simply trying to find the players to make this list. They both did. Suffice it to say that Fouts has a spot in the Hall of Fame and Rivers has a spot on top of every passing category in team history. They both earned their place here.

3. LaDainian Tomlinson, RB (2008 Donruss Classics Monday Night Heroes)

Here is where LaDainian Tomlinson ranks in team history: #1 in rushing yards (outpacing #2 by nearly 300%), #1 in total touchdowns, and #12 in receiving yards. Yes, Tomlinson was so versatile that he missed the top ten in receiving yards by under 1000 yards--from the backfield. He even threw seven touchdowns. There are Chargers quarterbacks who started multiple games who threw fewer TD passes than LT. In 2006, he took home the MVP award as he set the NFL record for most TDs in a season (31). He was arguably the greatest weapon in the game during the early 2000s. 

4. Lance Alworth, WR (1989 Swell Football Greats)

It has been over 50 years since Lance Alworth left the Chargers. In that time, the game has changed drastically. It has become a passing league. Passing numbers have skyrocketed since that time. And yet, only one player has passed Alworth on the Chargers' all-time receiving yard list. At the time he moved on from the team, he was #2 in the NFL history in receiving yardage. From 1963-1968, Alworth had a string of six consecutive 1st-Team All-Pro nods. Not only is he in the Hall of Fame, he was also named part of the the NFL's 100th anniversary All-Time Team.

 

 

5. Charlie Joiner, WR (1987 Topps)

The card of Charlie Joiner above is a little misleading. In 1986, he became the NFL's all-time leader in receiving yards. One might assume that he is the one who surpassed Lance Alworth for the franchise lead. That is not the case. Joiner played elsewhere before going to San Diego. For the franchise, Joiner ranks 3rd. However, most of that NFL record was accomplished while he played for the Chargers. Joiner was one of those steady performers who never got much widespread recognition. While quietly setting NFL records, Joiner only made three Pro Bowl teams and one All-Pro. He is in the Hall of Fame, though.

6. Antonio Gates, TE (2011 Panini Adrenalyn XL)

Antonio Gates is the one Charger with more career receiving yards than Alworth. Famously a former college basketball player, Gates was absolutely dominant throughout his career. His 955 receptions are most in team history, as are his 11,841 yards and 116 TD catches. His receptions and yards rank 3rd all-time among tight ends, and his TDs lead the way for his position group. He isn't yet eligible for Hall of Fame consideration, but he should be a surefire first ballot nominee. Plus, he played every game of his career for the Chargers.

7. Kellen Winslow, TE (1982 Topps)

Gates wasn't the first great Chargers tight end. Before him, Kellen Winslow was setting TE records. In fact, both great Charger QBs had a tight end who was among the elite at his position to help him out. Though he had a short career, Winslow was probably the best pass-catching tight end of his time. He led the NFL in receptions twice, was a three-time All-Pro, an All-Decade performer, and ultimately a Hall of Famer.

8. Junior Seau, LB (1995 Collector's Choice Players Club)

The Chargers selected Junior Seau with the 5th overall pick in the 1990 draft. He didn't make the Pro Bowl that year, but that was okay. Because he wound up representing the team in the next 12 Pro Bowls. Seau was unarguably the heart and soul of the team through the 90s, the decade that includes the franchise's only Super Bowl appearance. His six All-Pro nominations cemented his place as an all-time great and landed him in the Hall of Fame.

9. Eric Weddle, S (2015 Prestige)

Weddle was a do-it-all playmaker during his years in San Diego. He recorded 19 interceptions, scored four defensive touchdowns, and made 851 tackles. He was a two-time All-Pro and was honored with a spot on the All-Decade Team of the 2010s.

I'm not sure there is another team out there with such an imbalance of offensive and defensive players. In fact, I could make a pretty good argument to replace Weddle with a couple of offensive linemen. San Diego/Los Angeles has certainly had more high-powered offenses than stalwart defenses in the team's history. Was there anybody I forgot? Let me know what you think!

Some notes on this series:

1. This includes Super Bowl Era players only.
2. The "nine" in Franchise 9 is to fill a page in a binder. There is no intent to fill a roster or even a starting lineup.
3. A player can represent multiple teams.
4. I tried to find a balance between steady producers with longevity and explosive players with shorter careers. Time with the team does count for something, as does impact with the team.
5. For a link to Franchise 9 lists that I have already posted, click here.
6. This is all subjective, so I'd love to hear whom you would choose!

Not Quite Mint Condition

Who needs borders? Many of the "premium" card brands out there don't need them; there is a lot of borderless design on them. Stadium Club has offered borderless, full-bleed photography for almost 30 years, and the result is often stunning. For a stretch between 2016 and 2020, Topps didn't even bother with borders on its flagship set. I have seen cards that look beautiful with borders and some that look great without them.

But somewhere out there are collectors who believe that every card should be borderless. This belief runs so deep that they are willing to remove the borders from their cards. I recently received the former property of one of those collectors, with blogger Bo as the intermediary. 

These 1958 Topps cards once had borders, but somewhere along the way somebody decided they looked better without them, so off they went. For reference, I left them in the page they were shipped in. You can see how much smaller they are. And here is one of them in its full, unblemished state:

 

Bo put a few of these up for trade on his blog. At just about the same time, I bought a lot of vintage cards that were also in somewhat less than mint condition. Coincidentally, I had a couple for his 1969 set build, so I claimed these three obscure former All-Stars for my All-Star project.

I picked up three lots: 1969 Topps baseball, 1977 Topps baseball, and 1975 Topps football. These were some of the keepers for my collection. I'm especially pleased with the variety of football HOF players. But you can see the condition is horrid. We have creases, paper loss, writing, and poor Rico Petrocelli has a chunk taken out. But they work for my collection.

Here is another way to look at the condition of these 40+ year-old cards.

But hey, they landed me a trade with Bo. And if this type of condition doesn't bother you, here is what I have available for trade. I didn't put them for trade on TCDB because I didn't feel good about that. But for you blog readers who have seen what we're dealing with here, I don't mind making a trade if you want some of these old cards. (Links to the TCDB checklist for each set so you can see who the player is.)

1969 Topps: 114, 136, 143, 182, 217, 253, 302, 334, 337, 344, 341, 349, 363, 369, 499, 505

1977 Topps: 5, 20, 26, 178, 294, 310, 356, 474, 526, 545, 562, 597, 607

1975 Topps (FB): 24, 96, 98, 115, 139, 161, 206, 342, 360

If anything is of interest to you, these old clunkers can be yours.

The Franchise 9: Los Angeles Rams

 

 

This was a difficult franchise to choose. There have been a lot of great Rams over the years, but interestingly, some Rams Hall of Famers have had shorter stints with the team than other long-time contributors. This left some decisions with a much thinner margin than one might expect. For example, running back Lawrence McCutchen outpaces both Eric Dickerson and Marshall Faulk in career AV. But was he really more impactful in franchise history? What about if you throw in Steven Jackson, who is actually the franchise-leading rusher. Does he knock out another player who is enshrined in Canton? Small decisions like this abounded on this list. Roman Gabriel (who played 11 years for the team) or Kurt Warner (five years)? Tom Mack, Jackie Slater, or Orlando Pace? The result is a very solid lineup with some very solid players on the outside looking in. Here is how my analysis and opinion filled this list.

1. Kurt Warner, QB (2013 Topps Magic)

Back in 1999, the St. Louis Rams were coming off a last-place, 4-12 finish. Sports Illustrated picked them to move up in a weak division--to 3rd place--but still only finish with six wins. Expectations dropped even lower in the preseason when QB Trent Green tore his ACL. Now under center would be former Arena League QB Kurt Warner. The Rams weren't exactly high on Warner; they had left him unprotected in the expansion draft. Apparently, the expansion Browns weren't high on him, either, as they didn't take him. Suddenly, he was the starting quarterback. All he did was act as field general for "The Greatest Show on Turf" and lead the Rams to the only Super Bowl victory in franchise history that very season. He played only 53 games in St. Louis, but he was NFL MVP twice his five-year stint there. He's not in the top five in franchise history in most passing categories (with the exception of passer rating), but he stands out as the best quarterback in team history.

2. Eric Dickerson, RB (2014 Topps Fire)

Eric Dickerson set the NFL single-season rushing record while with the Rams in 1984. That record still stands. That's just part of the story; Dickerson was absolutely dominant for the first six years of his career. In that span, he led the NFL in rushing yards per game every season but one. He led the league in rushing as a rookie in 1983, then his record-setting year of 1984, and again in 1986 (and in 1988, but he wasn't a Ram at that point). He's no longer the team's leading rusher because he was traded halfway through year five. But in 4.5 seasons with LA, he was a Pro Bowler and a 1st-Team All-Pro four times and ran for over 7,200 yards. As a member of the NFL's All-Time Team who spent the best of his career with the Rams, how could he not be part of its Franchise 9?

3. Marshall Faulk, RB (2001 Playoff Contenders)

Marshall Faulk was an all-purpose machine. He joined the Rams fresh off his first Pro Bowl season, having led the league in yards from scrimmage with the Colts. He didn't skip a beat. In his first year in St. Louis (1999), he once again led the NFL in yards from scrimmage while winning a Super Bowl and gaining All-Pro recognition for the first time. For the next two years, he led the league in total touchdowns and was an All-Pro both times. He played seven seasons with the Rams, rushing for 6,959 yards (3rd all-time) and scoring a franchise record 85 TDs.

 

4. Torry Holt, WR (2008 Gridiron Gear)

In my mind, Torry Holt is WR1a and Isaac Bruce is WR1b in Ram history. Bruce is the franchise leader in catches, receiving yards, and receiving TDs. Holt is close behind in all categories. So why does Holt get the nod here, over Bruce? Because Bruce had 39 more games in a Rams uniform than Holt. The longevity certainly counts for something, but Holt was just more explosive for a shorter period of time. Holt was a seven-time Pro Bowler, one-time All-Pro, and led the league in receiving yards twice. His 117 receptions led the league in 2003, too. Only once in his seven seasons in St. Louis did he fail to reach 1,000 yards--his 32-year-old year, his last the with Rams and the penultimate of his career. He is a member of the NFL's All-2000s team. Isaac Bruce produced for a long time and just took his rightful spot in Canton, but he didn't spend as much time as one of the league's elite as Holt.

5. Orlando Pace, T (1996 Ultra)

The Rams selected Orlando Pace with the first overall pick in the 1996 draft. Three years later, he solidified himself as one of the game's best. During the team's Super Bowl run in 1999, Pace made his first Pro Bowl and his first All-Pro team. It was the first of seven straight Pro Bowls and the first of three All-Pro nods in that span. For his career, he was honored as a part of the All-2000's team and a spot in the Hall of Fame.

6. Aaron Donald, DT (2019 Score Epix Game Red)

Not too many active players are on these lists. Of those active players, Aaron Donald may be the youngest. Donald just turned 30 earlier this year, but he is already ninth all-time in career AV for the Rams. Among active AV leaders, Donald is the only one in the top 25 with fewer than 10 years under his belt. He has played seven seasons, getting Pro Bowl nods in all seven and 1st-Team All-Pro honors in six. In seven seasons, he has taken home the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award three times. The man is a wrecking crew in the middle. And with a long career still ahead of him, he may very well be the one we talk about as the best defensive player in NFL history when it's all said and done.

 

7. Deacon Jones, DE (1989 Swell Football Greats)

David "Deacon" Jones is credited with coining the term "sack" in football. Unfortunately, it didn't become an official statistic until 1982, eight years after Jones's playing career ended, so the original sack-master had no place in the NFL record books. Until 2021. Just four months ago, Pro Football Reference announced the culmination of a painstaking research project in which they credited players with sacks dating back to 1960. Deacon Jones immediately slid into the #3 spot behind Bruce Smith and Reggie White. He was honored as a member of the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team last year.

8. Merlin Olsen (2009 Upper Deck Football Heroes)

This is Merlin Olsen's second appearance on my blog this year. Many of you are familiar with seeing a certain card of his circulate through the blogs a few months ago. Olsen and Jones made up half of the Rams' "Fearsome Foursome." Olsen also benefited from the new sack stats; he was retroactively awarded 91 sacks, good for third in franchise history. As an illustration of just how dominant he was, consider this: Merlin Olsen had a string of 14 straight Pro Bowls and, within that stretch, five consecutive 1st-Team All-Pro nods. He was a member of two All-Decade Teams and is the third Ram on the NFL's All-Time Team.

9. Jack Youngblood, LB (1984 Topps)

Any reader who is paying close attention will notice that I said Merlin Olsen is third on the team's all-time sack list. So who is second? Aaron Donald hasn't quite caught him. No, #2 is Jack Youngblood, who traveled through the blogosphere with Olsen early this year. Youngblood is now credited with 151.5 sacks and retroactively became the NFL sack leader in 1974 and 1979. He ranks second in Rams' history in approximate value (behind Olsen) and spent his entire 14-year, Hall of Fame with the franchise. Youngblood most definitely belongs with the team's best nine.

 

It's hard for me to look at this list of greats and not feel justified in my decisions. But in some ways, the list is odd because team leaders in key categories such as passing yards and touchdowns, rushing yards, receptions and receiving yards, and interceptions are not here. The team has seemed to have short-lived, superstar streaks combined with steady stat accumulation in its past. I can think of a few more very deserving names, but none that I feel should knock any of these players out of their spots. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. Who are your best Rams?

Some notes on this series:

1. This includes Super Bowl Era players only.
2. The "nine" in Franchise 9 is to fill a page in a binder. There is no intent to fill a roster or even a starting lineup.
3. A player can represent multiple teams.
4. I tried to find a balance between steady producers with longevity and explosive players with shorter careers. Time with the team does count for something, as does impact with the team.
5. For a link to Franchise 9 lists that I have already posted, click here.
6. This is all subjective, so I'd love to hear whom you would choose!