It’s a blaster box that’s really a set.
2022 Leaf Pro Set Football Draft arrived at the shop Friday afternoon. With a relatively slow moment in store, coupled with the urge to rip new, cheap product, I had to dig into this one. I didn’t realize until I had the box in my hand and was reading the description that the configuration of this blaster is a 10-card base set and two autographs.
The little set features five current collegiate football players teamed up with five current NFL rookies, making it sort of a hybrid 2022 and ’23 draft product. The autographs are the main draw here, though.
All of the cards come in one snap tight case.
The first card visible is card number one in the set, that of 2021 Alabama Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Bryce Young, who is currently expected to be a top five pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
The second card in the set features Ohio State quarterback and upcoming draft pick C.J. Stroud followed by Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Those college stars are followed by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Caleb Williams (not in his USC gear) and Ohio State running back Treveyon Henderson.
The backs of the cards, by the way, feature a short biography but no stats.
We keep the Ohio State mojo flowing as we get to the second half of the set. Featuring the current crop of NFL rookies, we start with former Ohio State wide out and New Orleans Saints stud wide receiver Chris Olave followed by his former teammate and current New York Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson. Then came two 2022 NFL rookies in Jameson Williams and Kenneth Walker III.
The final base card in the product is former University of Pittsburgh and current Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback Kenny Pickett. It oddly looks like Kenny is launching the Pro Set logo downfield.
Stacked directly underneath the 10 card set are the two autograph hits.
The first was we revealed was current Pittsburgh Steelers role playing pass catcher and ball carrier Connor Heyward out of Michigan State. The younger brother of Steelers star veteran Cam and the son of former Steeler Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, Connor had his moments this season as a versatile rookie. This was the blue parallel version.
As I was opening this box, there was a huge Steelers fan in the store, all but demanding I sell him this card (relax, my guy. It’s a five dollar sticker auto of Heyward in an airbrushed college uniform from a low end product).
The final card in the group was a red parallel autograph of Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin, Jr.
This was an extremely cheap and extremely quick rip and although there’s obviously not a lot of variety, it was kind of refreshing to be able to have the entire base set especially when it consists of some solid names. You will find the Pro Set produced RC and XRC logos on many of these cards. You will also find them in airbrushed college unis but you take what you can get for such a cheap price. And just a heads up…there are colored parallels (look at the players’ positions on the front).
We could have done better with the autographs but we could have definitely done worse (a lot worse) especially in such a low end product.
For $25–and sometimes less, it’s hard to beat a pair of autos and a small set of some potential NFL stars.
Check out sports card boxes of all kinds in Sports Zone’s online store here.
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