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College football cards you should collect during 2023 season
Let’s be honest, the players that drive the NFL card market are primarily at the offensive skill positions.
The quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends garner the biggest bucks for their cards, and a nice crop of newcomers entered the NFL after April’s draft.
Four of the top eight selections were skill position players with quarterbacks Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson going first, second and fourth, respectively. Bijan Robinson was the top running back off the board at No. 8. These guys all made a name for themselves playing college football and now hope to up their game at the next level.
Sports Collectors Digest takes a look at this year’s college football players who could emerge as stars. And with name, image, likeness (NIL) dominating college athletics, most of these guys have cards and memorabilia already penetrating the market. NIL has changed the landscape of college football.
Card company Onyx Authenticated has produced college football cards for the last three seasons. President Lance Fischer jumped at the chance to offer collectors another avenue to get cards of their favorite collegiate players.
“The first year that NIL came along, Topps and Panini kind of stayed on the sidelines and Leaf, myself and to a certain degree Wild Card jumped in there and took advantage of the situation,” Fischer said. “We kind of tested it and it did good. Now that Topps has jumped in this with Bowman University and all that, it’s definitely helped them because now they’ve got the branding, they’ve got the logos that they’re using them. They didn’t do that the first year. I think some people are trying to figure out, hey, is this the next Bowman thing in other sports? I think that’s to be determined.
“But for us, since we’re such a niche — maybe even the same thing with Leaf — we’ve got kind of that captivated audience for consumers that really likes our product, they like what we do, and even though it might be unlicensed, we’re still really good about getting the talent first. Of course, our thing is we always do on-card autographs. There are some things that separate us from the Bowmans and Leaf and so forth, but it’s definitely made it more competitive.”
Bowman will have a plethora of products out for this college football season, including Bowman University Chrome Football, Bowman University Chrome Football Sapphire and Bowman University Best Football, noted Adam Johnson, Product Development Brand Banager — Football, Fanatics Collectibles.
“The products will be loaded with autographs from some of the biggest stars we’ll see this year in college football,” Johnson said. “We’ll also be utilizing chrome technology throughout the three products in collector-favorite card sets such as The Big Kahuna, 1955 Bowman Football, Unexpected Delights Early Risers and more. We’ve also added new parallels into the mix, so there’s a lot of product updates that we think collectors will be excited about.”
As much as Johnson is excited about the products Bowman will be releasing, he’s excited about the talent on the college football fields across the country.
“We think this draft class is setting up to be one of the best classes we’ve seen in a long time, and there have been some great classes over the past decade,” Johnson said.
“To me, my excitement starts with the quarterbacks. You have what seem to be two generational talents at the top with Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. But you also have some great names that you could see creep up draft boards as the season goes on. This could be a year where you have as many as five QBs who are talented enough to go in the first round. However, it doesn’t stop there as we have what is shaping up to be the best wide receiver prospect of this generation in Marvin Harrison Jr., as well as his Ohio State teammate and position-mate, Emeka Egbuka, who is not far behind him. Last, but definitely not least, you have Brock Bowers, who — outside of maybe Kyle Pitts — is arguably the most hyped tight end prospect we’ve ever seen this early in the draft scouting process.”
TALENTED GUNSLINGERS
With a quarterback frenzy at the top of last year’s draft, it just solidifies how important that position is in the eyes of NFL teams.
There may not be three quarterbacks that go in the top five in the 2024 draft, but as a whole, it’s an extremely talented group of gunslingers.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say this quarterback class is stronger than this past draft with Caleb Williams, Drake Maye,” Fischer said. “You’ve got Jordan Travis out of FSU. Although I’m not sure he’s going to be a first-rounder, but he could surprise some people. You’ve got Jayden Daniels. He’s projected [to] be a possible first-rounder. I think another guy that may surprise people is Joe Milton III, the Tennessee quarterback. I think he’s going to surprise people with his arm. This kid’s arm is insane, it’s so strong. He’s an athlete. He transferred from the University of Michigan, and he might surprise some people this year — just kind of like how Hendon Hooker did.”
Johnson is extremely high on the quarterbacks, a group that is very deep. He is big on Williams, Maye, Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Michigan’s JJ McCarthy and Texas’ Quinn Evers.
“I really think there are at least five or six guys talented enough to go in the first 40 picks of this draft,” Johnson said. “Now what makes this particular group so enticing to me is that those QB names I had previously mentioned — Williams, Maye, Nix, Penix, McCarthy and Ewers — doesn’t even include once highly-touted guys like Tyler Van Dyke out of Miami; Sam Hartman, who is now at Notre Dame; Jordan Travis at Florida State; and the dynamic Cam Rising at Utah. Neither did that list include up-and-coming names such as Joe Milton, who now takes over at Tennessee; former FCS star Shedeur Sanders, who is now at Colorado; the not talked about enough Riley Leonard at Duke; and the seasoned Michael Pratt at Tulane.”
Williams is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner after a phenomenal sophomore campaign at Southern Cal. The former Oklahoma quarterback accounted for 52 total touchdowns — 42 through the air — last year.
BREAKING NEWS: NFLPA terminates Panini contract, allows Fanatics to produce NFL cards three years early
Heading into the season, Williams is projected by some outlets to be the No. 1 pick in next April’s draft. However, Fischer isn’t so quick to anoint him as the clear-cut top pick right now.
“The one person I always think of when you get this projected quarterback that’s just awesome, no-brainer, good chance he’s the number one pick, Heisman candidate, you look at Spencer Rattler, and he’s another one that could surprise some people this year out of South Carolina,” Fischer said. “But Spencer was insanely talented and just kind of killed it [at Oklahoma] and Caleb came in and took over for Spencer. Hopefully Caleb doesn’t do something like that.
“I’m always cautious on some of these quarterbacks, especially with the way NIL works, because we’ve already seen where sometimes the money and the fame and exposure can take away from the mental piece of the game. The physical piece is always there, but the mental piece tends to get tarnished and someone that had all this potential in the world who’s now a millionaire in college may not have the same work ethic or the same drive that they had before this whole NIL thing started.”
Maye is coming off an impressive 38-touchdown season as a freshman at North Carolina. He’s projected as a top-five pick in next April’s draft. He’d be the first Tar Heel quarterback to go in the top five since Mitch Trubisky in 2017.
Fischer said Maye had the opportunity this offseason to transfer to a bigger, more football-rich college program where he could lavish in NIL money and get added exposure, but he turned it all down.
“He was diehard and wanted to stay at North Carolina, and I think that says a lot about the character of an athlete when they’d rather be loyal and stay at one place and it’s not about the NIL opportunities,” Fischer said. “It’s about performing on the field and everything else will kind of speak for itself.”
Daniels is projected to light up the scoreboard in Baton Rouge for LSU. Texas’ Quinn Ewers is another quarterback to watch this season who could hear his name called in the first round of the next draft.
“There’s a lot of names — it’s a really strong class,” Fischer said about the quarterbacks. “It should be interesting to see what happens.”
SOLID PASS CATCHERS
Last year’s wide receivers were a great group.
Once the first went off the draft board — Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba to the Seattle Seahawks — at No. 20 overall, it caused a run at the important position. Picks Nos. 20-23 were all receivers.
Fischer said this year’s class certainly isn’t as good top to bottom.
“Last year’s was pretty strong, but you’ve got some guys out there,” Fischer said. “Some of the names last year with Jordan Addison and Jaxon Smith-Njigba — those guys are going to be tough to compete with coming into this year. You’ve got Marvin Harrison Jr., who’s going to be good. Then Xavier Worthy, the wide receiver out of Texas, and then after that I think there’s a pretty big drop whereas there wasn’t so much in this past draft.”
Harrison Jr. is the son of NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison Sr., who was a top-five pass catcher in NFL history. Junior, who as a sophomore last year had 77 catches for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns, has a shot to be a top-three pick in next year’s draft — he’s that good.
Harrison might also be the only wide receiver to go in the first round. Worthy could end up being an early second-day pick.
“The wide receiver group this year is again, quite deep,” Johnson said. “Starting with the already mentioned Harrison Jr. and his position-mate Egubka being the consensus one and two in the class, other talents include Xavier Worthy from Texas, who should get plenty of shine in that Steve Sarkisian offense; Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, who are another incredible collegiate duo for the Washington Huskies; Dorian Singer and Mario Williams, who will be the main targets for Caleb Williams at USC; as well as other consensus top-50 names in Malik Nabers at LSU, Troy Franklin at Oregon and Johnny Wilson at Florida State.”
In the 2023 draft, four tight ends were selected in the first 42 picks, the class was that strong. This year there is a bit of a drop-off
However, there is one tight end that stands way above the others: Georgia’s Brock Bowers. He has shown in the last two national championship games that he’s a big-time player. Bowers has drawn comparisons to San Francisco 49ers great George Kittle.
“Believe it or not, he could go top five, he’s that good,” Fischer said. “They’re saying he’s much better than Kyle Pitts, and Kyle Pitts was a top-10 pick for Atlanta. Bowers is one of those tight ends that we haven’t seen come along in a while. I think he’s definitely going to do really, really well.”
RUNNING BACKS
The running back class this year doesn’t have anyone that stands above the others, but there are definitely some good athletes at that position.
“There’s no real clear-cut running back that I think sticks out,” Fischer said. “Bijan [Robinson] last year was a no-brainer first-rounder. You really don’t have that this year with Blake Corum, running back out of Michigan, who got injured towards the end of last year. But he’s considered one of the top running backs. The kid out of Ole Miss, Quinshon Judkins, and the kid out of Arkansas, Raheim Sanders.”
When Corum got hurt last season, Michigan’s backup running back, Donovan Edwards, stepped up in a big way with 520 yards in the final three games to help the Wolverines get to the College Football Playoff.
Every year in college football there are some running backs that don’t necessarily come out of nowhere to surprise the country, but maybe their production wasn’t expected as soon in their career. It’s inevitable that this scenario will happen again this season.
“There’s always going to be a freshman or two that’s going to make some waves, it happens every year,” Fischer said. “I expect that to happen again. Like I said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid out of Texas, running back Cedric Baxter, is one guy. Texas offensively and even defensively is stacked. I think they’re going to be one of those schools that is going to kind of rise from the ashes and definitely make a statement this year. They’ve got the quarterback, they’ve got a freshman running back that’s going to be really good, they’ve got receivers. I would keep an eye on them.”
— Greg Bates is a freelance contributor and editor-at-large for Sports Collectors Digest. He can be reached at gregabates@gmail.com.
