Beginning with the 2025 season, every NFL team will be permitted to have three different helmet shells after the league announced a revised uniform policy in April.
An exception was made for teams that underwent a redesign this offseason, though, which is why the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans will both have three shells at their disposal this fall.
With that, we’ve started a concept series that creates second and/or third helmet designs for teams that have not unveiled them. We’re also fixing some issues we have with current alternate designs, as well.
Up next in the eight-part series is the AFC North as we make our way alphabetically through the conference before moving to the NFC East and so forth. You can check out our previous designs here.
The Ravens recently unveiled a purple second helmet that features their front-facing logo and a gold facemask. We’re not a big fan of the talons, though, so we’ve replaced them with a center stripe that matches their Color Rush set.
Baltimore’s third helmet, meanwhile, is inspired by the iridescent feathers of a raven, including a black base with purple undertones. We’ve also removed the purple from the logo to let that effect shine through.
While a black helmet with orange stripes seems like a natural progression for Cincinnati, which already has orange standard and white alternate designs, we’ve decided to go in a different direction with the 1968-79 throwback lid.
The Bengals are in a unique situation, though, as they can’t simply swap the decals and facemask on their orange helmets because the stripes are actually painted onto the shell, and a new orange helmet has to be added as a result.
The Browns introduced a white alternate helmet last season, pairing it with their 1946 throwback uniforms. However, the stripes on the helmet don’t match the stripes on the pants, so we’ve fixed that.
Meanwhile, we flirted with the idea of a brown third shell, but couldn’t quite get past the SCLSU Mud Dogs vibe and instead put Brownie The Elf on the side of a tan design meant to honor a muddy uniformed Jim Brown.
Not counting their World War II-era mergers, the Steelers wore gold helmets from their founding in 1933 through the 1962 season, as well as for throwback games from 2007-10. Bringing the design back makes too much sense.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh could swap the decals and/or facemasks on its standard black helmets to honor any other era in franchise history, so we’ve decided to pay homage to the Steel City with a gray third option.
