My first look at 2026 Topps Flagship Football

I was out shopping the other night, and came across some 2026 Topps Flagship Football at Walmart. I decided to pick some up and take a look at it.

Let's see, 59 cards, and 32 teams in the NFL. I guess I want to get two Browns cards in the box to match (alright, very slightly beat) the odds. I would prefer to get three or more, but I don't usually get lucky like that.

Looking at the checklist for the set, there are 400 cards. There are 15 Browns cards, one of which is a League Leaders card.

Opening the box up, here's the first card I see.

Now to show the cards by twos, as I see them.

Hey! My first Browns cards right at the beginning of the pack! All right!

Carson Schwesinger's card has the Topps All-Rookie Team logo right under the Topps logo.

The card fronts seem to share the baseball card fronts. I'm a little indifferent to them. I've seen better, but I've also seen worse. I appreciate that the name, team and position are easily identifiable. I'm also happy that these aren't chrome type cards. I'm getting a little sick of the chrome type cards, but will of course still pick them up for my collection.

Since I've got an offensive and defensive player, let's see what they show for their backs.

They show one year of stats, and the career totals. (Of course Schwesinger only has one year of stats in his career.) They also have a small write-up on the player. I don't hate the backs, but I think that it will depend on how generic the write-ups get.

The Packers white helmet just doesn't look right. Even on a while uniform, I think I would prefer their standard helmet.

Another All-Rookie Team logo on Tyler Shough's card.

So many of those NFL Canada commercials that I have seen have taught me that Chuba Hubbard is Canadian.

Another All-Rookie Team card.

A couple of nice action shots running with the ball.

McLaurin watching the ball coming in to him. I like seeing it.

Actually, I just like these cards having backgrounds, even if they are blurred a bit behind the player.

Woo hoo! There's a second Browns cards.

Let's see the back of the shared Leaders card.

I'm kind of surprised they separated the leaders cards into AFC and NFC cards.

Once again, I love the eyes on the ball into the hands on the Trey McBride card.

Two really good players. I really hate that Ja'Marr Chase is in the Browns division, and that they have to play against him twice a year.

I like Thuney's horizontal card, showing both arms extended, with the quarterback he's protecting just sneaking in on the right hand side of the card.

Well, I got the NFC Sack Leaders card to go with the AFC one earlier.

The Ricky Pearsall photo is another good use for a horizontal card.

It seems interesting to me that the Future Stars logo isn't on a rookie player. McMillan caught 70 passes for 1014 yards, and 7 touchdowns in his rookie year.

The Bills card is my first team card. The back just gives a small blurb about the two players on the front of the card, Josh Allen and James Cook. I like the photo.

Again, I like the photos on these cards. They are cropped to the player, not cutting off limbs, which is good, but I do miss seeing more of the play around the player.

And then we get to these cards that cut off portions of the player. No matter, I love the ball extension on Luke McCaffrey's card. Good use of breaking the frame of the card.

A couple of good young players. Another all white Packers card. Good quarterback photo for Drake Maye.

I'm happy to see lineman cards. When at games, I've been known to miss some nice plays because I was too busy watching the action on the line of scrimmage.

I remember that Jordan Mailata was the Eagles nominee last year for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, and that he's Australian.

And we've now hit the rookie card section of the pack. Coleman was a 4th round pick, while Beck was a 3rd round pick.

I developed a bit of a soft spot for the Cardinals while my mom was living in Arizona. I hope that Beck does well for them.

Both receivers were 1st round picks for their teams. It is nice to see the rookies in their team's uniforms, not combine photos in shorts and numbered t-shirts.

A nice photo of De'Zhaun Stripling, a 2nd round draft pick, while Faulk was a 1st round pick.

Johnson was a 1st round pick, while Wetjen was a 3rd round pick.

Terrell was a 2nd round pick, while McGowan was a 7th round pick.

When it comes to having a 7th round pick included in the set, I wonder what the thought process is on the selection of players for the set. McGowan was the first non-lineman offensive player the Colts drafted this year. Maybe Topps wanted to make sure they had someone on a card that might put up stats during the season.

Both of these players are also 7th round picks. Smith was, again, the first non-lineman offensive player that the Cowboys drafted, while Morton, a quarterback, was selected for the set along with a 3rd round TE from Notre Dame.

The last base rookie card, Sonny Styles, was a 1st round pick.

And this led us to the start of the parallels and inserts in the pack.

I'm not sure what parallel type this is for Colston Loveland, but he finished his first year with the Bears and also got a Future Stars banner from Topps.

More parallels. Singleton was a 5th round pick, and for the quarterback leaders card, they seem to be concentrating on an easy stat, TD passes, but they don't have one for passing yards, or QB rating. Seems interesting, and a little simple, to me.

For the inserts, I'll show the back as well. I kind of like the idea of the Profiles cards. It makes for a good idea for an insert set, but it also depends on what the commentary actually is.

Okay, I really like the Ring of Honor back. It gives a lot of good information on the game and player being showcased.

For the Profiles card, I like the info or description in the player file, but the analyst insights really seem like more of a hype show than actual analysis. But I guess that fits with how I've seen Kyle Brandt speak on Good Morning Football.

35th Anniversary cards in the 1991 design style. I don't mind them, but if I were a set collector, I think I would prefer two other base cards than having these.

Ted Hurst was a 3rd round pick in the draft.

Like the base cards, they have one year and career totals on the back. Nothing special for these card backs. 

Also, like the base cards, they show the 2025 stats from college, along with the college totals, but they don't mention on the back that these stats were with a different team than they are photographed in. I think I would have preferred having the college, or team, listed on the line with the season stats.

I like this Pressure Cookers insert card. It is shiny, not chrome.  However, do I need to have 12 parallels available for the regular insert card?

Since I have time in writing this, and since I wanted to make sure that I got at least two Browns cards in my pack, I'm going to see how evenly split the cards were among the teams.

There are 59 cards, three of which have three players on, so there will be 65 players represented. Here is what I counted for their team representation:

5 cards - Panthers

3 cards - 49ers, Bears, Commanders, Cowboys, Eagles, Falcons, Packers, Patriots, Rams

2 cards - Bills, Broncos, Browns, Cardinals, Chiefs, Colts,  Giants, Lions, Raiders, Saints, Texans, Titans

1 card - Bengals, Bucanneers, Chargers, Dolphins, Jets, Ravens, Seahawks, Steelers, Vikings

0 cards - Jaguars

Ouch, that would have hurt if I was a Jaguars fan.

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Overall, I am happy with my purchase.  I think it looks like a nice return to licensing set from Topps. I may buy a little more of it, but I don't think that I will be trying to complete the set. I will be looking for all of the Browns cards.