[ginge01]

This is my Playoff - Panini Contenders New York Jets collection, from the start thru to the latest release, a year by year summary, I’ve not uploaded every base card, I do have them, some years I show only the better cards.
I previously uploaded this in 2012, this version is updated to include the 2013 & 2014 cards and additional autos / inserts I picked up from other years.

1993
Where it all began, all the Jets cards, Marvin Jones was their 1st rd draft pick that year and the only Jets RC, so no RB Adrian Murrell or Richie Anderson RC’s. The Esiason card doubled up as 1 of the 6 checklists for the set.


1994
The second year, Contenders now has inserts. The Jets have only the 1st rd pick Aaron Glenn RC included (but as an insert), so no Contenders RC’s for 7th rd QB Glenn Foley who started in later years or 2nd rd WR Ryan Yarborough.

Playoff introduced a Back to Back insert set, one card has two Jets otherwise I was competing with another team / player collector who’s player had some link (in a lot of cases) with the Jets player. The Art Monk / Heath Shuler was once worth $80 as Shuler was the 3rd overall pick for the Washington Redskins, today its value is $15ish. I got it for a $1 at the Hollywood Park card show, the dealer did not know what he had and asked if I’ve give him a buck. The front and corresponding backs are shown.



1995
The Jets had a horrible year (3-13), the 150 card Contenders set had two Jets cards, starting QB (Boomer Esiason) and their 1st rd pick TE Kyle Brady. No RC for the other 1st rd pick DE Hugh Douglas.
I’ve included the Curtis Martin RC because he had a successful Patriot career for 3 years, then became a great Jet and Hall of Famer. I’ve picked up all his true RC’s, so I include it here.
The inserts were the 2nd and last year of the Back to Backs. Boomer Esiason’s reverse was 2010-2011 Jets backup QB Mark Brunell. Curtis Martin shared a card with Terrell Davis, an expensive insert card to acquire in the 1990’s.
Also included are the plastic Rookie Kickoff inserts of Kyle Brady and Curtis Martin.


1996
Playoff Contenders get funky. Every three card pack contains a Leather ticket, a parallel pennant and a parallel Open Field foil card.
The first scan has the Jets tickets, the top row is the parallel accent inserted 1 in 216 packs, QB Neil O’Donnell, 1st rd pick WR Keyshawn Johnson & 2nd rd pick WR Alex Van Dyke. The middle row is the Accent, Ground Hog (not called Hogg’s yet!!) insert and base ticket of Curtis Martin, the bottom row is the base cards of the 3 Jets players.

The next scan are the pennants and the open foil cards.
All three types of cards were colored scarce (green wording), rare (purple wording) or ultra rare (red wording) Very confusing at the time. Easiest to tell on the Open Field Foil cards.


1997
The base set was bland, the foil cards were silver, the parallel cards had blue foil on them. I show a mixture of them, the Jets RC’s were 3rd rd pick WR Dedric Ward and 4th rd pick Leon Johnson. No Contenders RC for 1st rd OLB James Farrior who had a long NFL career, 5 years with the Jets and a larger number with the Steeler as a very productive ILB.

The inserts were imaginative, Playoff did a great job so I included them. They were not ready to give up on the leather and felt pennants, the Blue parallels were also in the insert sets.
The top cards are Contenders Clash with Keyshawn Johnson against Mike Alstott with the blue parallel, also Curtis Martin and Warrick Dunn with the blue parallel.
The leather appeared as the Leather Helmet Die Cuts. Curtis Martin has the Silver, the Blue parallel and the #ed to 25 red parallel, no Jet player was in that insert set.


For the Rookie Wave pennants, each rookie had 4 colors, Leon Johnson had a green, blue, orange & black. Also shown are the Performer Plaques showing a black photo surround, with blue surround parallels of Keyshawn Johnson and Curtis Martin.


More Felt. Curtis Martin was 1 of 36 players (no Jets) who had 6 different felt colors, green, blue, black, purple, orange, red and purple. The borders were silver foil. A parallel blue foil was also produced with the same 6 felt pennant colors so a total of 12 Curtis Martin felt pennants. Had to tell apart with the scan, the silver foil 6 is scanned above the blue foil 6.



1998
The arrival of the rookie ticket, the Jets have no 1998 RC’s, their top picks were a DL, a CB and a converted QB (Scott Frost of Nebraska) who the Jets tried to make a S. He is in early year sets, but never established himself as a star NFL player.
The final year of leather and felt, 1998 is like 1996 but on steroids. The 3 sets, Ticket, Leather and Pennants are not exactly parallel sets, different players appear in the different sets, the card numbers are not always the same for a player. Curtis Martin has now become a Jet.

The Ticket, Jets have Wayne Chrebet, Keyshawn Johnson and Curtis Martin, also the red foil parallel. Red was the popular 1998 Playoff base parallel color.


The Leather, Jets have Glenn Foley with Keyshawn Johnson & Curtis Martin, also the red foil parallel.


The Pennant, Playoff went crazy with the felt, and I had fun tracking them down. Jets have Vinny Testaverde, Keyshawn Johnson & Curtis Martin, There are 6 base felt variants, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple and Orange, all have Silver foil, unknown quantity made. The bottom row has two parallels, the right parallel is grey felt with red foil, unknown quantity made. The left parallel is a shortprint #ed to 98 black felt with Gold foil.




1999
The Jets had no Contenders RC’s, the top two picks 2nd & 3rd round) were offensive lineman, then a 4th rd DL was selected. QB Ray Lucas who had been with the team since 1997 started the 2nd half of the season, he was added after the Contenders release to supplement Shaun King (Bucs) who did not sign his cards, Lucas has 1825 autos (I wish there were that many autos of every Jets player every year). The inserts included the parallels Triple Threat Red #ed to 63 (Wayne Chrebet) and #ed to 60 (Curtis Martin). Still looking for the Keyshawn Johnson parallel #ed to 10.


The Contenders Quads, with Dolphins, Team Threads Quads and Retail Team Tandems.



2000
My collection will now be showing mainly Contenders tickets starting with the 2000 release.
Jets have two RC tickets, one of their 4 2000 1st rd picks QB Chad Pennington & 3rd pick WR Laveranues Coles. No RC’s for future Pro Bowlers DE Shaun Ellis or LB/DE John Abraham. Also omitted was the last of the 4 1st round picks, TE Anthony Becht.
I scanned the ROY Contenders insert cards, the auto of Pennington #ed to 100 and the base card of Coles.


2001
Playoff has auto stickers are on cards, and SP’s.
Whether it was the remaining number of stickers of a particular player Playoff had to use up or a contractual agreement, super low print runs start to become part of Contenders legacy, causing mass frustration to many collectors.
The Jets have two tickets, 1st rd WR Santana Moss and 2nd rd RB Lamont Jordan.
The Jordan is announced to be 50 copies. The card was once worth $250 for a player who underachieved during his long career.


2002
The draft class for the Jets, 1st rd pick was DE Bryan Thomas, 2nd rd S John McGraw, 3rd rd TE Chris Baker & 4th rd DT Alan Harper, Contenders has one Jets rookie ticket, a FA returner Tavon Mason who never made the team!!!
He was cut in August before the start of the regular season, I know Playoff had a lot of his autos to use up but putting him in a set 5 months after being cut, very frustrating!!!
A trend begins that afflicts collectors to do this day, auto RC’s of players cut in preseason, or earlier in training camp or even back to minicamp 8-9 months earlier.
The scan has the base cards, Tavon Mason’s RC and a Santana Moss & Lamont Jordan Sophomore Contenders auto cards.


2003
The Jets 1st rd draft pick is DT DeWayne Robertson who initially signing some early season product (mainly Upper Deck), then stopped signing stickers, a Contenders redemption card eventually becomes a card stamped ‘NO AUTOGRAPH’. The other ticket is 6th rd pick QB Brooks Bollinger. Also scanned are inserts, with 3rd rd pick B.J. Askew who did not get a Contenders RC ticket card. 2nd rd pick LB Victor Hobson gets no Contenders RC.


2004
Jets have a better draft, with 1st rd LB Jonathan Vilma the NFL defensive rookie of the year. Playoff Contenders RC tickets were given also to 4th rd WR Jerricho Cotchery, 5th rd S Erik Coleman and 7th rd pick RB Derrick Ward. Jets draft was 10 players.
Cotchery signed with a blue ink pen only, I have never seen a black ink auto. The other three have black ink pen AND blue ink pen variants.
Ward, had most of his RC cards as a Jet, the Giants signed him off the Jets practice squad, by the end of 2004 Playoff recognizing him as a Giant. The Contenders picture shows him in Jets a minicamp uniform with a Giants logo on the card.


2005
The Jets trade away their 1st rd pick for a 2nd and TE Doug Jolley who lasts one year.
The two 2nd rd picks are K Mike Nugent & CB-Returner Justin Miller with no Contenders RC. The three RC tickets were Nugent, 6th rd RB Cedric Houston & signed off waivers WR Dante Ridgeway a 2005 Rams 6th rd pick, all his Jets cards have him in a Rams uni. His NFL career, 2 catches for the Jets.
Houston’s card was a redemption one of 116, he did not get his stickers back to Playoff until 2007, by then he had already retired. That redemption cost me $150 back in 2006. Jets draft was 8 players, starting all season 4th rd S Kerry Rhodes was missed by Playoff for a RC ticket.


2006
Start of the Eric Mangini era, the Jets need to rebuild after 4-12 in 2005. Two 1st rd picks were starters all 2006 T D’Brickashaw Ferguson & C Nick Mangold both became Pro Bowlers. Mangold did not get a RC ticket. Playoff misses again. Jets draft was 10 players.
The RC tickets were Ferguson, 4th rd RB-Returner Leon Washington, 4th rd WR-Returner Brad Smith, 2nd rd QB Kellen Clemens and 3rd rd S Eric Smith. Smith signed some stickers with 33, some without, both are shown.

The inserts include one auto (D’Brickashaw with the overall #1 pick, Mario Williams of the Texans)


2007
A new drafting strategy for the Jets, trade up. They do it twice in the 1st and 2nd rd, winning big time, getting 1st rd pick All Pro CB Darrelle Revis and 2nd rd pick LB David Harris. Jets have 4 draft picks. The RC tickets were Revis, Harris and 7th rd WR Chansi Stuckey who spent 2007 on IR, presumably signing lots of Playoff, Topps and Upper Deck stickers. He’s everywhere.


The inserts are mainly Darrelle Revis and David Harris, with a cool one that has Redskins 1st rd pick Laron Landry who was a Jet for 2012


2008
Jets draft is 6 players, apart from their second 1st rd pick TE Dustin Keller who they traded up for, it was a collective bust. 6th overall pick was DE-OLB 1st rd Vernon Gholston who’s NFL career ended after 3 years with as many sacks as any Beckett forums participant, zero.
The RC tickets were 1st rd Gholston and Keller and 4th rd DB Dwight Lowery who was a reasonable player for the Jets. 2nd row is 5th rd QB Erik Ainge and 6th rd WR Marcus Henry, neither played a regular season game for the Jets. Ainge was another shortprint, one of 107, ironic his card cost almost as much as the other 4 players combined.


The inserts include the autos that I have been able to locate.


2009
Jets policy to trade up continues under Rex Ryan. Goodbye Brett Favre, Jets trade up with Cleveland (and ex Jets Head Coach Eric Mangini) to get 1st rd QB Mark Sanchez, then trade up again to get 3rd rd RB Shonn Greene. Their RC tickets, autos on card are shown with 2009 1st rd pick Aaron Maybin. True, Maybin was not a Jet in 2009, he arrived in 2011 and did what Gholston could not do, rush the passer, get sacks & cause fumbles, helping the Jets win a game in Washington. His RC ticket is a shortprint, one of 99, Maybin has very few autos, sadly his form vanished in 2012 as he was cut by the Jets. The Jets draft was 3 players, only 6th rd LG Matt Slauson did not get a RC ticket.

These autos inserts in 2009 went for crazy money


These Jets will always be Jets legends, not rookies hoping to be great one day


2010
Jets draft 4 players, and have 2 ½ RC tickets.
4th rd pick RB-Returner Joe McKnight goes to the rookie premiere, signs on card base and variant on the top row. The second row is 5th rd pick FB John Conner & the Jets ½ ticket who is Sergio Kindle 2nd rd pick of the Ravens.
For some reason this card looks to have originally been for Jets 1st rd pick Kyle Wilson but Playoff did not complete it. My guess, Wilson was not easy to get auto stickers from so they replaced him with Kindle. Around the Rookie ticket area of the card is Jets info in silver, it was overstamped with Kindle and the Ravens. Behind the purple foil RAVENS is the word JETS, the Ravens logo almost entirely covers the Jets logo, it says AFC North over AFC East and SERGIO KINDLE in purple over KYLE WILSON. Check out the scan closeup.



The inserts of Jets Hall of Famers Joe Namath and Don Maynard.



2011
Another crazy year for the Jets, another crazy year for Playoff Contenders.
Jets draft 6 players, 1st rd pick Muhammad Wilkerson signs no cards so no Contenders RC. The era of Contenders variations continues, three rookie players, four RC tickets with three SP’s,
top row 5th rd WR Jeremy Kerley 1 of 82 & 6th rd QB Greg McElroy 1 of 204,
middle row 4th rd pick RB Bilal Powell with the photoshopped SSP 1 of 25 (the undershirt is colored black, the riddell logo on his helmet is whitened out), the base rookie is to the right.
bottom row auto inserts
Signs of Greatness Shonn Greene 1 of 25
Legendary Contenders Curtis Martin 1 of 25
Rookie Ink Bilal Powell 1 of 25


More Rookie Inserts and parallel autos all 1 of 10
Draft Class Jeremy Kerley and 7th rd Scotty McKnight who did not get an individual RC ticket
Draft Class Bilal Powell and Greg McElroy
Rookie Roll Call Bilal Powell



2012
The Jets front office makes bizarre personnel moves, giving Mark Sanchez below average WR's, injuries to Dustin Keller & Santonio Holmes ensue and a disastrous 6-10 record.
Another year of Contenders, the cards say Panini Contenders, the redemptions say Playoff Contenders, so what are they?
Jets draft 8 players, the era of Contenders variations grows to new heights, four Jets draftees get two versions, one of them (Terrance Ganaway) was not a Jet during any of the regular season, cut in preseason, had a year of some Jets cards, some in preseason uniform with 'Signed by Rams 9/1/12' eventually Rams only cards until Contenders give him a Rams and a Jets uni.
The draft class who got cards
1st rd DE Quinton Coples (Contenders)
2nd rd WR Stephen Hill (Contenders) (only redemptions tickets as of 05/012015)
3rd rd LB Demario Davis (Contenders)
6th rd S Josh Bush (Got an Absolute but no Contenders bah)
6th rd RB Terrance Ganaway (Contenders in Jets and Rams unis!!!)
7th rd S Antonio Allen (Topps cards only, double bah)
7th rd WR Jordan White (Topps cards only, triple bah)

The cards
top row, veterans
middle row, variations of 1st rd Quinton Coples 1 of 115, 3rd rd Demario Davis and 6th rd Terrance Ganaway in his Jets uniform 1 of 200
bottom row, same three guys in their base autos, Coples 1 of 550, Ganaway correctly in his Rams uniform!!!


Stephen Hill, please sign your Panini stickers, I have entered the redemption codes, I want the cards.
base auto, variation auto 1 of 200, playoff ticket auto 1 of 99
Rookie Ink auto 1 of 75, Rookie Stallions auto 1 of 25, Rookie of the Year Contenders auto 1 of 10
Draft Class Auto with Quinton Coples 1 of 15 & the base inserts


If the Stephen Hill redemptions ever arrive, I will update this thread.

2013
The Geno Smith era begins, Mark Sanchez gets injured in preseason, so Smith becomes opening day starter. The Jets win 3 of the last 4 to rally to an 8-8 season.
Contenders does variations parallels, and other who cares parallels.
The Contenders goofiness grows as now the same number can be a base of player A on team A, the variation is player B on team B, an example is the #130, David Amerson is the base, Marcus Davis of the Jets is the variation. Very annoying as it appeared to be a SP for a guy the Jets released in May 2013. Panini had to use up all those stickers somehow.
The Redskins and Jets were not the only teams with this Panini goofiness.
Redemption comments are as of 05/01/2015

The draft class
1st rd CB Dee Milliner (Contenders) (waiting for his redemptions to be sent out, including base out of 110 SP and less than 50 SSP variation)
1st rd DT Sheldon Richardson (it appears he did not want to sign cards so the defensive ROY has no Contender RC)
2nd rd QB Geno Smith (Contenders) (most of his on card signing redemptions have been sent, still two insert cards to be redeemed)
3rd rd OG Brian Winters (no rookie cards)
5th rd OT Oday Aboushi (Got a Panini Player of the Day auto card and no other RC’s
6th rd OG William Campbell (no rookie cards)
7th rd FB Tommy Bohanon (National Treasures RC only)
FA….QB Matt Simms (Contenders with variation SP)
FA….WR Ryan Spadola (Contenders)
FA….TE Zach Sudfeld (Contenders with variation SP)
FA….WR Marcus Davis (Contenders with variation SP)


Jets rookies autos base (with #130A David Amerson Redskins)


Jets rookies autos variations (with #130B Marcus Davis)


Jets inserts



2014
The end of the Rex Ryan era with the Jets, screwed by a terrible GM getting rid of the cornerbacks, no replacements and the Jets season is over before it starts. And ironically, the Jets react after firing Rex by bringing back Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie!!!.
Contenders continues variations parallels, and other who cares parallels.
Is it right to make base cards less than 200 when there are 300 parallels??? Are Panini killing their own golden goose???


The draft class (12 picks)
1st rd S Calvin Pryor (Contenders with variation)
2nd rd TE Jace Amaro (Contenders) (no base card, #133 belongs to Christian Kirksey, Amaro is the #133 variation? Why? 50 Amaro cards made, but 300 parallels??? Why???)
3rd rd CB Dexter McDougle (no rookie cards, ACL injury in training camp)
4th rd WR Jalen Saunders (does not sign cards, suffers from fumblitis, Jets cut him in regular season)
4th rd WR Shaq Evans (Contenders, variation to 10, parallel variations 300??? Why??? tears labrum before regular season, IR)
4th rd OT Dakota Dozier (no RC’s)
5th rd ILB Jeremiah George (no RC’s)
6th rd CB Brandon Dixon (cut before regular season)
6th rd WR Quincy Enunwa (Contenders with variation out of to 150, parallel variations 300??? Why???)
6th rd LB IK Enemkpali (no RC’s)
6th rd QB Tajh Boyd (Contenders on card signing from (NFL Premiere??), cut at end of preseason)
7th rd LB Trevor Reilly (Contenders with variation out of to 100, parallel variations 300??? Why???)
FA….QB Walter Powell (Contenders with No variation)

Jets rookies autos base


Jets rookies autos base (with #133A Christian Kirksey Browns)


Jets inserts with Joe Namath Legendary Contenders 3/5


Jets rookies inserts (round numbers and Alma Maters)




J-E-T-S

[bojesphob]

Awesome collection! Seriously, that looks like it was a lot of work!

Out of curiosity, are you going to do the Contenders College from this year as well? Or are you just going to continue with them in Jets uniforms?

[ginge01]

Awesome collection! Seriously, that looks like it was a lot of work!

Out of curiosity, are you going to do the Contenders College from this year as well? Or are you just going to continue with them in Jets uniforms?

Hi,
Thanks, it took a lot of work a couple of years ago, adding the last two years and additions with the scans, writing up and editing the old write up, it was about 3 hours in total. It does not seem like work when it's enjoyable!!!

Contenders College. As of now. No. And my long answer is.
In 2009 as the collectors here will know, Contenders did it as a SP parallel, I did not try to get Mark Sanchez or Shonn Greene, it was expensive competing with set builders and possibly Southern Cal and Iowa collectors who wanted those uni cards.

For college uni cards, I did 2011 Upper Deck when they were making cards of Jets draftees in college uniforms, but licensing prevented them from printing Jets on the cards. 2012 was when Upper Deck SP's of college base cards, variations etc appeared and I walked away from that area of collecting. When it was $20 for a Stephen Hill college RC SP in Georgia Tech uni, aand Quintin Coples was equally expensive, I preferred to spend my bucks on Jets cards. I did not do any of the old favorites that were NFL sets in the past, Ultimate, Fleer etc

I think 2015 Contenders look great, a chance to get Jets draftees Leonard Williams and Bryce Petty, I will wait for the Jets unis Contenders, before then, there will be Score with parallels and autos, National Treasures, Prizm, Prestige, Crown Royale, Select, Momentum, those guys are guaranteed to be in those sets along with 2nd rd pick Devin Smith. Long answer

[gadsden86]

Well you know I am not a Jets fan by any means but I love looking at your collection.
I hope to fill my COntenders holes in my dolphins PC so It can look as good as this.

[pjrussell529]

Very nice collection. Sweet Namath! I forgot Monk was with the Jets.

[ginge01]

Well you know I am not a Jets fan by any means but I love looking at your collection.
I hope to fill my COntenders holes in my dolphins PC so It can look as good as this.

Thanks, and good luck with your Dolphins Contenders collection. You need to upload it sometime

---

Very nice collection. Sweet Namath! I forgot Monk was with the Jets.

Thanks, Art Monk had one year (1994) with the Jets.