No matter how good are bad the Cincinnati Bengals are, the franchise possesses some of the best alternate uniforms in the sport. Fans will now get to seem them more often going forward.
Fox Sports' Jordan Schultz reports that the NFL will allow clubs to wear throwback or alternate uniforms up to four games per season, up from the previous maximum of three games.
The Bengals do not currently have a throwback uniform to wear that's been approved by the league, but they do have an alternate orange jersey and an alternate white helmet. Wearing either one for a game counts as an alternate uniform, but the Bengals have only worn their orange jersey with their standard orange helmet and their white helmet with their standard white jersey.
Last year, the Bengals debuted orange pants for the very first time, but wearing different pants does not determine whether or not a uniform is an alternate. The Bengals wore those pants five times last season.
Bumping up the max from three to four means the Bengals can wear both their orange jerseys and all-white looks twice a season. They opted to go orange twice and white helmets once in 2024, unfortunately losing all three games in the process. This gives them the flexibility to even things out if they so choose.
It also opens the door for the team to wear a uniform combination that hasn't been worn since 2021.
The very first time the Bengals wore their updated orange jerseys was in Week 4 of the 2021 season on Thursday Night Football against the Jacksonville Jaguars. They wore their white and orange pants with the jerseys.
This combo has been in the closet ever since as the orange jerseys have only been worn with their standard black pants, or with their orange pants from last season.
Why? The orange and black combination seemed to be the more popular alternate of the two and the club ran with that one for the past few years. It's the uniform the Bengals wore when beating the Chiefs in home games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Having one extra opportunity to bring out an alternate means we could see the orange and white combo come back into the picture along with the orange and black. The team decided last year it would start a tradition by wearing its all-orange uniform for every regular season home opener, labeling it "Open in Orange," and "White Bengal" isn't going anywhere either.
So, three orange games and one whiteout, or two of each seem like the likely routes to take here. I doubt they'd opt for wearing the orange jerseys once all season in the very beginning.
Cincinnati will unveil its full uniform schedule much closer to the start of the regular season.
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