2026 Pro Set Metal Football: New Kid in Town, Retro Designs and a Tebow What-If

Jared Curtis's New Kid in Town preview puts a city skyline behind a large football photograph. Tim Tebow's Transfer Portal card takes a deliberately hypothetical route, imagining an Alabama connection through its “Tebow Rolls to Alabama” headline. 2026 Pro Set Metal Football uses both current college movement and a playful rewrite of the past alongside its returning retro designs.

Leaf's calendar places the release in July 2026. Hobby boxes contain five autographs and five base cards, with ten boxes per case. Jumbo is a separate format with eight autographs and seven base cards, plus its exclusive red, white and blue card program.

A new town, then an imagined transfer

Curtis's preview uses a bright frame around the city and player image, with the autograph and insert title below. New Kid in Town highlights incoming freshmen and college players making an impact in a new college town. That gives the skyline a specific role in the insert's premise.

Tebow's preview is a different sort of story. The large Transfer Portal lettering and imagined Alabama headline belong to Leaf's explicit what-if concept, which asks how an earlier transfer portal could have changed past college football. The card's scenario is part of its creative design; it is not a report that Tebow made that transfer.

The Pro Set designs still matter

The product also puts younger players into the 1989 and 1990 Pro Set designs, including Mini versions of both. That gives collectors identifiable layouts to follow alongside the newer city and portal themes. The metal treatment changes the surface while those named designs preserve the visual connection to Pro Set's earlier card language.

Red, White and Blue 1989 and 1990 Pro Set cards are exclusive to Jumbo cases. Leaf's Jumbo specification lists two red, white and blue base or autograph cards per box, with eight boxes per case. The exclusive treatment belongs to that format rather than the five-autograph hobby configuration.

Acetate signature cards and randomly inserted on-card signatures add further autograph formats. The advertised younger names include Bryce Underwood, CJ Carr, Dante Moore, Jayden Maiava, LaNorris Sellers, Leonard Moore and Malachi Toney.