Box break - 2016 Panini Football, Part 1

I bought a retail box of 2016 Panini Football from the Panini booth at San Diego Comic-Con months ago, and have yet to post about it. Due to life being busy, I haven't been down to my PO Box in a little while, and soon enough my Black Friday COMC cards will roll in. If I want to post about it, I should do so now.

The box consisted of 24 packs of 10 cards.

It states on the box that one should "Find 1 Autograph or Memorabilia Card per box, on average!"

Let's look at the first half box and see what I find!

Pack 1:

52     Jason Witten - Cowboys
48     Gary Barnidge - Browns
43     Alfred Blue - Texans
102   Cole Beasley - Cowboys
192   DeMarco Murray - Titans
155   James Starks - Packers
Knight School 11     Paxton Lynch - Broncos
(? parallel) 125     Eddie Lacy - Packers
238   Jonathan Williams - Bills
223   Tyler Ervin - Texans

Okay, I opened this months ago, but the cards have been sitting in their packs, in the order they came since then. I still don't know how to identify the parallels that I have.

From what I gather, the Lacy is either a Knight's Templar or a Shining Armor parallel. The foil doesn't scan shiny but it is reflective. Anyone know how to identify them?

Here are a couple of the card backs.

The base cards are very similar to a lot of the other Panini sets in that give stats from last year, and career, but don't say how long the players career has been. Obviously the write-up on the back of the Beasley card mentions that the 52 receptions in 2015 was a career-high, so you know that he couldn't have had 90 in 2014, but how long has he been in the league? And, no personal information on the back at all in regards to physical statistics, date/place of birth, college or draft position. I hope for more in a card. But the cards and their backs are in a color corresponding with the player's team! I expect more.

As for the insert, it is nice to see that the card recognizes that Paxton Lynch is with the Broncos, but nothing is mentioned about where he was drafted.

Pack 2:

37     Greg Olsen - Panthers
30     Tyrann Mathieu - Cardinals
22     Frank Gore - Colts
153   Stefor Diggs - Vikings
150   Jeremy Maclin - Chiefs
146   Tyrod Taylor - Bills
Combine Champions 18     Ezekiel Elliott - Cowboys
Blue Knight 216   Jalen Ramsey - Jaguars (#/99)
231   Jerell Adams - Giants
214   Jaylon Smith - Cowboys

With the Ramsey parallel being numbered, I know which parallel it is.

Pack 3:

13     Ryan Shazier - Steelers
3       DeAngelo Williams - Steelers
93     Dorial Green-Beckham - Titans
141   Bobby Wagner - Seahawks
135   Jordy Nelson - Packers
128   Vincent Jackson - Buccaneers
Royal Family 5       Clay and Jake Matthews - Packers / Falcons
Sacrifice Die-Cut 28     C.J. Anderson - Broncos (#/199)
204   Thomas Duarte - Dolphins
294   Devontae Booker - Broncos

I do not like the stylized number 5 on the cards throughout the Panini Football set. I really don't want to have to think when I'm sorting my cards.

Pack 4:

44     Devonta Freeman - Falcons
38     Travis Benjamin - Chargers
31     Brandin Cooks - Saints
184   T.J. Yeldon - Jaguars
154   Blake Bortles - Jaguars
151   Ben Roethlisberger - Steelers
Accolades 16     Jerry Rice - 49ers
(? parallel) 262   Maliek Collins - Cowboys
295   DeForest Buckner - 49ers
286   Paxton Lynch - Broncos

I still like Travis Benjamin so it is nice to get his card, although it won't fit in my collection. And the Collins seems to be the same as the Eddie Lacy in Pack 1, but I don't know what it is.

Pack 5:

23     J.J. Watt - Texans
14     Sam Bradford - Eagles
94     Eli Manning - Giants
147   Michael Crabtree - Raiders
142   Ndamukong Suh - Dolphins
136   LeSean McCoy - Bills
MVP Predictor MVP-10     DeMaryius Thomas - Broncos
Sacrifice Die-Cut 133   Teddy Bridgewater - Vikings (#/199)
278   Carson Wentz - Eagles
271   Braxton Miller - Texans

I'm not as big a fan of the silver border for the Raiders cards. To me, it actually seems to scan better than it is in person.

I like seeing Predictor cards in the set. I've never actually won with one, and if I won with a Browns card I don't know what I would do because I would still want the predictor card itself. Oh, well, I really don't need to worry about that.

There were three different Predictor sets - MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Offensive Rookie of the Year. All three were 20 card sets with card number 20 being a Wild Card, which I assume means that it is the rest of the field. The Browns didn't have cards included in the first two categories, but have Corey Coleman and Cody Kessler in the third.

Here are the Predictor rules:

Pack 6:

4       DeMeco Ryans - Eagles
85     Chris Johnson - Cardinals
77     Rob Gronkowski - Patriots
129   Alfred Morris - Cowboys
121   Jimmy Graham - Seahawks
112   Ryan Tannehill - Dolphins
Legends of the Shield 17    Thurman Thomas - Bills
(? parallel) 114   Rashad Jennings - Giants
249   Jake Rudock - Lions
244   Kenyan Drake - Dolphins

The parallel is shiny with a rainbow effect here. Should I assume it is the Shining Armor? And that makes the other two Knight's Templar?

Pack 7:

16     Matt Forte - Jets
6       Jay Cutler - Bears
96     Giovani Bernard - Bengals
144   Jason Pierre-Paul - Giants
138   Austin Seferian-Jenkins - Buccaneers
131   Richard Sherman - Seahawks
Decorated 16     Jerry Rice - 49ers
(? parallel) 123   Michael Griffin - Titans
206   Sterling Shepard - Giants
296   Demarcus Ayers - Steelers

Well, the Griffin card is another shiny/rainbow parallel. Wheee! What fun this game is!

Pack 8:

79     Terrell Suggs - Ravens
87     Chandler Jones - Cardinals
72     Terrance Williams - Cowboys
123   Michael Griffin - Titans
114   Rashad Jennings - Giants
104   Odell Beckham Jr. - Giants
Knight School 12     Shaq Lawson - Bills
(? parallel) 140   Justin Houston - Chiefs
287   Myles Jack - Jaguars
279   Nate Sudfeld - Redskins

As you can see without the reflection in the scan, the Houston card appears to be the regular foil parallel, whatever that is.

And as a Canadian, I grew up with the small text saying that a player had been traded to or signed with another team so the Chandler Jones card doesn't bother me at all.

Pack 9:

66     A.J. Green - Bengals
45     Darrelle Revis - Jets
39     Joe Flacco - Ravens
194   Julius Thomas - Jaguars
185   Cam Newton - Panthers
177   Todd Gurley II - Rams
Accolades 15     Ted Hendricks - Raiders
(? parallel) 219   Darius Jackson - Cowboys
272   Cody Kessler - Browns
266   Leonard Floyd - Bears

Ummm, okay, a different type of shiny/rainbow parallel. This may help clear things up. There is a Chainmail Armor parallel, and those kind of look like links...  I may have figured this out! I wish it were of a different Cowboys rookie running back though.

Oh, and I am happy to get a second Browns card. There are 11 in the 300 card base set.

Pack 10:

32     Robert Mathis - Colts
24     Malcolm Jenkins - Eagles
15     Ryan Fitzpatrick - Jets
152   DeVante Parker - Dolphins
148   Lavonte David - Buccaneers
143   Adrian Peterson - Vikings
Legends of the Shield 16     Joe Montana - 49ers
Sacrifice Die-Cut 40     Philip Rivers - Chargers (#/199)
245   Kelvin Taylor - 49ers
239   Moritz Bohringer - Vikings

Bohringer was one of the fun stories of the draft so it was nice to get his card.

Pack 11:

5       Brandon Marshall - Jets
95     Ameer Abdullah - Lions
86     Jeremy Hill - Bengals
137   Latavius Murray - Raiders
130   Travis Kelce - Chiefs
122   Jarvis Landry - Dolphins
Combine Champions 17   Tyler Ervin - Texans
Sacrifice Die-Cut 295   DeForest Buckner - 49ers (#/199)
232   Vernon Butler - Panthers
215   Karl Joseph - Raiders

There are two players that I enjoy watching on the NFL Network - Brandon Marshall and Von Miller.

We see here that rookies have a different shape die-cut than the veterans, and still with the rookies, I really like the Karl Joseph card at a press conference. Something different, I guess.

Pack 12:

78     Donte Whitner - Browns
71     Russell Wilson - Seahawks
49     Steve Smith Sr. - Ravens
113   Antonio Andrews - Titans
103   Delanie Walker - Titans
193   Calvin Johnson - Lions
Decorated 17     John Elway - Broncos
Knight's Templar parallel? 133 Teddy Bridgewater - Vikings
224   William Jackson III - Bengals
205   Shilique Calhoun - Raiders

Started and finished the first half of the box with a Browns card. I don't mind that at all. However, as a Browns fan I do not like John Elway so that hurts the pack.

As I said, I'm going to now assume that this type of parallel is the Knight's Templar one.

And I think this is the first card I've pulled of a person with the name of Shilique.

So, after looking at these cards, you can see that the first six cards are base cards, then two inserts, and finally two rookie cards. So with twelve packs opened, I have:

72/200 base veteran cards
24/100 base rookie cards
3/11     base Browns cards

2/20     Accolades insert set
2/20     Combine Champions insert set
2/20     Decorated insert set
2/15     Knight School insert set
2/20     Legends of the Shield insert set
1/20     MVP Predictor insert set
1/5       Royal Family insert set

The interesting things with the insert sets is that for all the sets that I have two cards of, they are of consecutive numbers. I'll have to check to see if the other half-box continues that trend.

4 Sacrifice Die-Cut parallels (#/199)
4 Knight's Templar parallels, I think
1 Blue Knight parallel (#/99)
2 Shining Armor parallels, I think
1 Chainmail Armor parallel

I hope to post the rest of the box tomorrow.