The NFL delivered a letter to teams earlier in April allowing them to add a third alternate helmet to their repertory of uniforms.
Teams that planned to replace their uniforms in 2024 may include that third choice as early as this year. The third helmet could make its debut in 2025 for everyone else.
This sparked a lot of conjecture that the Detroit Lions might unveil a third helmet option when they unveiled their new uniforms on Thursday night. The Lions did, however, disclose a modification to their alternate blue helmets; nonetheless, no third helmet for the 2018 campaign was disclosed.
During the ceremony, team president Rod Wood provided an explanation of the rationale.
Wood declared, “No third helmet this year.” The fact that it really didn’t match with what we were rolling out and that we were probably too late in the process.
For the 2024 season, the Lions will have three helmet options, just to be clear. The silver helmets they usually wear, the new blue helmets that go exclusively with the black uniforms, and the silver helmets without decals that go with Detroit’s throwback outfits (which are still worn on game days) are all interchangeable. Wood made it clear that the choice for a retro helmet does not qualify as a third helmet.
“That’s just our identical helmet, so it’s not a (third) helmet.” We simply remove the branding,” Wood stated.
