Spring was for full redesigns. Summer is for alternates, and this one is stacked. Three teams are pulling the covers off new looks inside of ten days, and this is our running tracker of every 2026 NFL alternate jersey and helmet reveal, newest first, each one graded the way we grade everything else.
If you are looking for the five full uniform overhauls that landed back in the spring, those live in our complete 2026 NFL uniform reveal rankings, where the Commanders took the highest grade we have ever handed out. This page is the second wave: the one-off helmets, the alternate sets, and the throwbacks that teams save for the middle of summer when there is nothing else competing for attention.
Updated Tuesday July 21 with the New York Jets' new white "White Out" alternate helmet, their fifth. Next up: the Los Angeles Rams unveil two new alternate uniforms Thursday July 23, and the Buffalo Bills reveal their new alternate set July 27. Both will be added here the day they drop.
1. New York Jets "White Out" Alternate Helmet
Let us start with the part everyone agrees on. The helmet is good. It is a bright white shell with a white facemask, the current "Jets" wordmark in green on both sides, and a single green stripe running straight down the center. It is a clean inversion of the green helmet, and the Jets' green is dark enough to carry the whole thing without any help. It debuts September 20 against the Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium as part of a full White Out, white helmet over white jersey over white pants, and that is the version this was designed for. A white lid dropped into a normal uniform is a garnish. A white lid on top of an all-white column is a statement.
The history is real too, which keeps it from feeling invented. The Jets wore white helmets from 1963 to 1977 and again from 1998 to 2018, and the 1963 original carried the same single green stripe down the middle. An entire generation grew up watching this team in white.
So that is the nice part. Here is the part nobody covering this reveal wants to say out loud.
This Is the Fifth Helmet. For This Team.
Count them: the standard green, the black alternate, the black "Rivalries" lid, the white "The Classic" throwback, and now this. Five helmet options, the most in the NFL, on a team that has not played a playoff game since January 2011.
That is not a cheap shot, it is the actual context. The Jets are sitting on a 15-season postseason drought, the longest active drought in North American professional sports, longer than anything in the NBA, MLB, or NHL. In that same window they have gone through a full identity change, a throwback program, a Rivalries set, a black alternate, and now a fifth lid. The wardrobe has been more productive than the roster, and at some point the volume stops reading as confidence and starts reading as a distraction.
Uniform variety works when it is scarce. The reason a throwback game hits is that it happens twice a year. When a team has five helmets and three jerseys and three pants, no single combination is an event anymore, because there is always another one two weeks out. The Jets have spent so much of the last decade selling the look that the looks have stopped meaning anything. This one is genuinely handsome and it still lands with a shrug, and that is the cost of running a merchandise calendar instead of a rotation.
The Rule They Are Working Around
Here is the mechanical detail almost nobody wrote up, and it is the most interesting thing in the whole reveal. The NFL only permits three helmet shells in a team's rotation. The Jets get to five by swapping the decals and the facemask on their existing white "The Classic" throwback shell. Same physical helmet, two completely different identities, and a roster of looks no other team in football can match. It is clever, it is legal, and it is also exactly the behavior of a franchise optimizing for the merch table.
The one real design knock: that white facemask. Under a bright afternoon sun, white on white flattens out and the helmet loses its definition, which is the problem the Dolphins and Chargers keep running into with light cages. A green facemask would have framed the wordmark and given it an edge. Under the lights on September 20 it will look tremendous. At a 1 p.m. kickoff in October it may go soft.
ColorWay Sports Grade
B
On a table by itself this helmet is an A-. Clean, historically grounded, and the White Out home opener is a genuinely great idea. It comes down to a B because it is the fifth helmet in a closet that stopped being special several helmets ago, and because the white facemask costs it definition in daylight. The Jets keep winning the offseason. We would trade all five lids for one January.
Coming Next: What Is Still Left to Drop
Two more reveals are already on the calendar, and both will be graded here the day they land.
Los Angeles Rams, Thursday July 23. Two new alternate uniforms. We broke down the leaked images of their alternate jerseys when they first surfaced. Their spring redesign earned a B- in our full Rams uniform review, so this is a real chance to recover some ground.
Buffalo Bills, July 27. A new alternate set. We already covered the gray Bills alternate jersey that leaked, and if that is what shows up, Buffalo is going somewhere genuinely unexpected for a franchise that has lived in royal blue and red its entire modern history.
The Bottom Line on the 2026 NFL Alternate Reveals
The Jets set the bar on day one and accidentally raised the real question of the summer: how many looks is too many? A white helmet, a White Out home opener against Green Bay, and a five-lid wardrobe nobody else can match is a lot of offseason noise from a team that has not won a playoff game in a decade and a half. The helmet is good. The strategy is starting to look like a costume department.
The Rams get their swing Thursday and the Bills follow on the 27th. We will grade both here, newest at the top, so this page stays the single place to see every new NFL uniform and helmet of the 2026 season in one scroll.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the new Jets white helmet look like?
It is an all-white shell with a white facemask, a green "Jets" wordmark on both sides, and a single green stripe running down the center. It is a color inversion of the team's standard green helmet.
When will the Jets wear the White Out helmet?
The Jets debut it on September 20, 2026, in their home opener against the Green Bay Packers at MetLife Stadium, paired with a white jersey and white pants for a full White Out.
How many helmets do the Jets have for 2026?
Five: the standard green, the black alternate, the black "Rivalries" helmet, the white "The Classic" throwback, and the new white alternate. That is the most helmet options of any team in the NFL.
Are NFL teams allowed to have five helmets?
Teams are limited to three helmet shells in their rotation. The Jets stay within the rule by swapping the decals and facemask on their white "The Classic" throwback shell, so two of their five looks share one physical helmet.
Do the Jets have too many uniforms?
That is our argument, yes. Uniform variety works when it is scarce, and with five helmets, three jerseys, and three pants, no single Jets combination reads as an event anymore. The team has also not made the playoffs in 15 seasons, the longest active drought in North American pro sports, which makes the volume of new looks harder to take seriously.
Which NFL teams are revealing new uniforms next?
The Los Angeles Rams unveil two new alternate uniforms on July 23, 2026, and the Buffalo Bills reveal a new alternate set on July 27, 2026.
Did the Jets wear white helmets before?
Yes. The Jets wore white helmets from 1963 to 1977 and again from 1998 to 2018. The 1963 version also featured a single green stripe down the center, the same detail carried onto the new alternate.
Reveal images via the New York Jets. ColorWay Sports is an independent design site and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Football League or any of its clubs.
