Drafting the 15 Best Rookie Cards Since 2015 NFL Draft!
If you could draft football rookie cards from the past 10 seasons, what would your cheat sheet look like!?!
Each Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter For Collectors has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights!
🏈 TOP 15 FOOTBALL ROOKIE CARDS SINCE 2015 NFL DRAFT!
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🏈 DRAFTING PAST ROOKIE CARDS BEFORE THE 2025 NFL DRAFT!
The 2025 NFL Draft is nearly upon us, which makes football card collectors happy because we finally find out which teams these awesome prospects will play for (specifically, the young quarterbacks like Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart and Jalen Milroe). It also gives us a chance to reflect on the past decade or so to see which past prospects make our rookie card collection awesome! We’re ranking the top rookie cards since the 2015 NFL Draft!
Top 15 Football Rookie Cards Since the 2015 NFL Draft
We’re using pricing from 130point.com for their PSA 10 Silver Prizm cards from Prizm Football sets. (There were some years when Silver also meant the card had an autograph, and there are some years when there were no Silver options.)
1. 2017 Prizm Patrick Mahomes II No. 269 (Silver) – $4,200 - View Prices on eBay!
There were many more doubters when the Chiefs made this pick in 2017 than there were that Mahomes would be the top pick in this Football Rookie Card Draft! The “winner” stats pile up, as does the price of his RC, with 3 Super Bowl wins, 5 Super Bowl appearances, and 7 consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances. Plus, he’s cool and fun, and we all wish he was our team’s quarterback!
2. 2020 Prizm Joe Burrow No. 307 (Silver) - $1,600 - View Prices on eBay!
Plenty of reasons to love Joe Cool, including his Heisman Trophy, National Championship win at LSU and being the No. 1 overall pick in 2020. He has one Super Bowl appearance, but a trophy in the pros would certainly push his rookie-card stock closer to Mahomes. The crazy part is – Mahomes (29) is just ONE year older than Burrow (28).
3. 2024 Prizm Jayden Daniels No. 347 (Silver) - $1,300 - View Prices on eBay!
Shocked to see a rookie from last year so high on this list? Me too! Then again, this Heisman-winning cat also from LSU broke rookie records with Washington, while leading them to their first NFC Championship Game since 1991. Being in a big media market helped his RC market, too, I believe.
4. 2024 Prizm Caleb Williams No. 301 (Silver) - $800 - View Prices on eBay!
If you thought Daniels up this high was a surprise, then you definitely didn’t expect this USC product up here after the up-and-down season he had in Chicago. But prospectors believe good things are ahead, as the Bears hired Lions OC Ben Johnson, and tried to improve their offensive line.
5. 2020 Prizm Jalen Hurts No. 343 (Silver) - $750 - View Prices on eBay!
Two Super Bowl appearances and one win makes Hurts a top-five rookie card to grab, even though he was somewhat of an afterthought when people were opening 2020 Prizm packs. People were trying to get Burrow cards, as well as Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa on this list, before they wanted Hurts. Now, it hurts to NOT have Hurts!
6. 2020 Prizm Justin Herbert No. 325 (Silver) - $775 - View Prices on eBay!
Just like everything else with the Chargers, Herbert’s rookie card stock goes up and down like one of his deep bombs.
7. 2020 Prizm Jordan Love No. 363 (Silver) - $650 - View Prices on eBay!
Drafted to replace the aging Aaron Rodgers, Love didn’t get the chance for three more years, as his predecessor went on to win two more MVP awards before moving to New York.
8. 2021 Prizm Trevor Lawrence No. 331 (Silver) - $550 - View Prices on eBay!
This still feels like a high mark for a quarterback with just one playoff appearance in four years, on a relatively forgotten team in a relatively low-key city.
9. 2020 Prizm Justin Jefferson No. 398 (Silver) - $450 - View Prices on eBay!
I was shocked that our first non-QB on the list was Jefferson and not his former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase, whose RC price doesn’t check in until 18th.
10. 2022 Prizm Brock Purdy No. 353 (Silver) - $430 - View Prices on eBay!
Whether you believe Purdy can win a Super Bowl or not, it’s still pretty shocking to see Mr. Irrelevant of 2022 in the top 10 on this rookie card list! He has more Super Bowl appearances (1) than five QBs ahead of him on this list!
11. 2023 Prizm C.J. Stroud No. 102 (Silver) - $395 - View Prices on eBay!
This might be a nice cautionary tale for those spending more than three times this amount on Daniels after his incredible rookie year. Things get a little tougher in Year 2 quite often.
12. 2018 Prizm Josh Allen No. 205 (Non-Silver/Non-Auto) - $300 - View Prices on eBay!
While the price is weirdly low, it’s more because the only Silver cards you could get in 2018 had autographs on them, which made them crazy expensive. Allen should be second overall on this list, if it were a normal set.
13. 2018 Prizm Lamar Jackson No. 212 (Non-Silver/Non-Auto) - $225 - View Prices on eBay!
Same here with the former Heisman winner out of Louisville, as Jackson would be top-five on this list normally.
14. 2016 Prizm Derrick Henry No. 298 (Silver) - $225 - View Prices on eBay!
The only running back among the top-20 on this list – and it’s not McCaffrey! King Henry continues to make noise with his new team, and he doesn’t appear to be slowed by injuries the way C-Mac might be.
15. 2020 Prizm CeeDee Lamb No. 334 (Silver) - $210 - View Prices on eBay!
Again, color me surprised that Chase isn’t above Lamb here. If the Cowboys are able to … just kidding, they’re in the same division as Philadelphia and Washington, so never mind.
Honorable Mentions!
16. 2020 Prizm Tua Tagovailoa No. 339 (Silver) - $200
17. 2017 Prizm T.J. Watt No. 216 (Silver) - $200
18. 2021 Prizm Ja’Marr Chase No. 337 (Silver) - $180
19. 2021 Prizm Amon-Ra St. Brown No. 358 (Silver) - $175
20. 2016 Prizm Jared Goff No. 208 (Silver) - $160
21. 2017 Prizm Myles Garrett No. 242 (Silver) - $160
22. 2017 Prizm Christian McCaffrey No. 249 (Silver) - $140
23. 2018 Prizm Saquon Barkley No. 202 (Non-Silver/Non-Auto) - $140
24. 2019 Prizm Terry McLaurin No. 353 (Silver) - $120
25. 2016 Prizm Tyreek Hill No. 296 (Silver) - $105
26. 2015 Prizm Stefon Diggs No. 285 (Silver) - $100
27. 2021 Prizm Micah Parsons No. 382 (Silver) - $90
28. 2018 Prizm Baker Mayfield No. 201 (Non-Silver/Non-Auto) - $85
29. 2022 Prizm Aidan Hutchinson No. 340 (Silver) - $80
30. 2017 Prizm Cooper Kupp No. 203 (Silver) - $80
Great Rookie Cards We Might Have Forgotten:
2015 Prizm Todd Gurley
2016 Prizm Michael Thomas
2016 Prizm Ezekiel Elliott
2017 Prizm Alvin Kamara
2020 Prizm Chase Young
Rookie Cards We Wish We Forgot:
2015 Prizm Jameis Winston
2017 Prizm Deshaun Watson
2018 Prizm Daniel Jones
2021 Prizm Zach Wilson
2021 Prizm Trey Lance
2021 Prizm Mac Jones
You can find our list of all the best football rookie cards, dating all the way back to the ‘50s, on our website! I want to hear in the comments below – where do you think Cam Ward and/or Shedeur Sanders will rank on this list in a few years!?!
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Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me: 2005 Topps John Elway All-Time Fan Favorites #15!
Which MLB player was the first to get a second Topps Living card?
Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com and you can win this 2005 Topps John Elway All-Time Fan Favorites #15 Card! Rather than take the first person who answers it right, I’m going to do a random drawing of all the people who answer this question before midnight, Friday, May 2. The winner will be announced in the May 8 newsletter.
From April 17 newsletter: Since Bowman had the rights to baseball cards with gum in the packs in 1951, Topps believed they could avoid a lawsuit if they packaged their 1951 Topps cards with what other type of candy? {rize: Answer this question before midnight, Friday, April 25. The winner will be announced in the May 1 newsletter.
From April 10 newsletter: Which year’s Topps flagship checklist is the only one set to have cards of Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Stan Musial? Prize: 1976 Topps Robin Yount card! Answer this question before midnight, Friday, April 18. The answer:1958. The winner: Randy Litzinger! Congrats, Randy!
Coming Next Week!
⚾ PATRICK’S 4 PRIME PROSPECTING POINTERS!
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🏈⚾🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY!
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Very cool idea resulting in a very interesting list. You touched on most of this, but surprising to see the “new” qb’s so high. Also to see TLaw, Stroud, and Herbert obliterating quality WR and RB prices still looks funny, even knowing qb bias. Chase seems like a bargain to me as well, for sure. Fun exercise, thanks for sharing!