Opening my first 2019 football cards - 2019 Score blaster

This post has been pushed back for a while. A few weeks ago I saw that the local Walmart had 2019 Score football blasters for sale and decided to pick one up.

Here is what I found inside my eleven packs of twelve cards with a guaranteed blaster exclusive memorabilia card inside.

Pack 1:

A Raven for the first card of a 2019 pack that I open all year. What joy. Followed by a Bengal in the third spot. I can't contain the enthusiasm.

Oh, and yes, I'm aware that Mosley is no longer a Raven, but it is still a Ravens card.

And a Steeler base card appears, followed by the same Steeler as my first insert card I opened this year. Is it going to be like this?

Yes, I guess it is. Both inserts of the first pack being Steelers.

Oh, and to bring more laughter...  I looked up the rookies to see where they were drafted...Jaylen Smith is an undrafted free agent signed by the Ravens.

If you're curious, Preston Williams is an undrafted free agent signed by the Dolphins, and Deionte Thompson was drafted by the Cardinals.


Pack 2:

Okay, that's more like it! Seeing a Browns card showing right on top. Gotta love it!

I was happy enough when I opened this pack that I overlooked the fact that there was a Steeler hiding two cards behind the Brown.

And since I have a Browns card, I might as well show what the back of this year's Score base cards look like:

I like the clean back, but find a lot of things missing on the back. I wish there was a different photo on the back, more than one year of stats, and I miss the basic information on the player that used to be on the back of cards. You know stuff like height, weight, birthday, college, when the player was drafted.

Here is a scan that doesn't include a card from one of the Browns division rivals. I like the photo on the Calvin Ridley card.

The J.J. Watt parallel was the only Scorecard parallel in my blaster.

At first glance, Noah Fant's Iowa uniform looks like a Steeler one, but he was a first round pick of the Broncos. Riley Ridley was drafted by the Bears, and Dillon Mitchell by the Vikings.

Pack 3:

Another Ravens card here of an ex-Raven with Flacco now in Denver.

Second Browns card of the pack!

Although I had purchased this blaster before my last card show, I posted about the card show first so you saw this Nick Chubb All-Hands Team card in the card show post. However, I didn't post the back there, and have decided that I will with new Browns cards I pull from packs.

What a reminder of a great play!

Rashan Gary was a first round pick of the Packers, Damien Harris was drafted by the Patriots, and Alexander Mattison was drafted by the Vikings.

Pack 4:

I will assume that the photo of Dee Ford is him coming out of the smoke before a game. I like that it is a different photo.

And here is my guaranteed relic card. Looking at the Defenders Jerseys checklist, there is a Browns card to chase on it, of Jabril Peppers. I don't think I will be buying any more blasters to try and get one though.

I look at these rookies, and remember that Drew Lock and D.K. Metcalf were both drafted in the second round by the Broncos and Seahawks respectively.

I had to look up that Darrell Henderson was drafted by the Rams, and Jachai Polite by the Jets.

Pack 5:

Another player running out of the smoke. At least that is the photo, and the smoke isn't the border design of the card.

I'm happy to see Nick Mullens get a card in the set since Jimmy Garoppolo will be back from injury and I didn't think that they would show two quarterbacks from one team.

I'm not really a big fan of parallels of inserts like this gold parallel of the NFL Draft insert of Bengals' draft pick Ryan Finley.

Should I bother pointing out yet another Steelers insert card?

Some more rookies to look up, and one with something that I hadn't seen before, a last name starting with an X. (After a quick search in the names section on the TCDB, it appears he is the first football player on the site to have a last name starting with X.)

Oshane Ximines is a Giants draft pick, as is Darius Slayton, while Trace McSorley was drafted by the Ravens.

Pack 6:

Steelers and Ravens. It sure seems like I'm getting more of them than any other team.

I like the powder blue Chargers uniform.

Have we seen any Steelers insert cards in this blaster? Will there be more?

As for the rookies, Daniel Jones was the Giants first round pick, while Travis Homer was drafted by the Dolphins, and Darwin Thompson was drafted by the Chiefs.

Pack 7:

I always wonder if I should do what some of the other bloggers do, I think Night Owl was the first that I saw do it, and keep track of how many cards that I got from each team. It just seems like a lot of work. I'm sure that the Steelers are winning though.

It appears as though parallel cards are in addition to two insert cards in each pack.

Back to back Josh Allen cards between the last two scans, but not of the same player. This Josh Allen was the first round pick of the Jaguars in this year's draft. Gardiner Minshew was also drafted by the Jaguars, while Marquise Brown was the first round pick of the Ravens, and Terry Godwin was drafted by the Panthers.

Pack 8:

I actually like the photos on all four cards in this scan. I'll even excuse the fact that one of them is on a Bengals card.

Okay, combine this Mike Williams card with the Nick Chubb card earlier, and I think that I really like the All-Hands Team insert set.

Okay, I just went and looked at the gallery at the TCDB for the ten card insert set. Some really cool photos, but then I see that two of the ten cards in the insert set are Steelers. I don't know how I didn't get them.

LJ Scott's card made me think for a bit. He was an undrafted free agent that went to a minicamp with the Ravens, before signing with the Browns. Two days after signing with the Browns, he decided to not play football.

For my collection purposes, if LJ Scott hadn't have attended the Ravens camp, and would have signed with the Browns right away as an undrafted free agent, I would feel that his card should be part of my Browns collection, even after he decided to leave the team after two days. If, even after going to the Ravens camp, he had made the Browns, and made a contribution, I would likely add this card to my collection. Since he wasn't an original Browns signee, and didn't make the Browns, and the card is with his college team, I can ignore this card.

Julian Love was drafted by the Giants, and Elijah Holyfield was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Panthers. If you're curious, yes, Elijah is Evander Holyfield's son.

Pack 9:

A third smoke shot is starting to make me feel it isn't as uncommon as I thought it might be.

I was surprised to pull the two Jimmy Garoppolo cards back to back.

I can't think of pulling a base card and a parallel version of it back to back in a pack before. I know I have pulled two of the same base card back to back in a pack before, but not from any recent sets.

After I asked earlier, did any of you think that you wouldn't see another Steelers insert from this blaster?

The rookies are Byron Murphy, a Cardinals draft pick, Kyle Shurmur, an undrafted free agent signing of the Chiefs, and Ed Oliver, a first round pick of the Bills.

Pack 10:

I couldn't remember who Blake Bortles signed with after the Jaguars released him. For any of you that are curious, it was the Rams.

I like the Signal-Callers insert set too.

A draft insert of Daniel Jones to go with his base card earlier.

As for the other players, Karan Higdon signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent, T.J. Hockenson was the Lions first round pick, and Lil'Jordan Humphrey signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent.

That brings us to the final pack of the blaster, and one last chance to pull a Browns card for my collection.

Pack 11:

No, I didn't say it was the last chance to pull a Ravens card, I said Browns card. C'mon, blaster, you can do better than that.

Kelvin Harmon, on the gold parallel card, was drafted by the Redskins.

There we go!

Mack Wilson was a fifth round pick of the Browns, while Parris Campbell was drafted by the Colts, and Amani Oruwariye was drafted by the Lions.

Here is the back of the Mack Wilson card:

Hopefully Wilson has a great season with the Browns this year.

So, in looking at the numbers, the blaster contains 132 cards and there are 32 teams. Not taking into any account whether there is even distribution per team in the base set, and how many teams are represented in insert sets, if there was a perfect distribution of cards per team in the blaster, I could expect just over four Browns cards in the blaster. I got three. Not bad, being just a little under average. Without counting, there are a lot more than four Steelers in my blaster, and I'm guessing that the Ravens are on the high side as well.

I like the Score cards, and over the last couple of weeks have picked up two 40 card value packs. I'll show what I got in them in my next post.