2026 Topps Chrome Football: Rookie Autos and Madden 99 Club

Jeremiyah Love's red autograph is a good place to start with 2026 Topps Chrome Football. The Cardinals rookie fills the upper half of the card, with his red jersey carried into the border and a blue signature spread across the white space below. The preview is numbered 4/5. It has the ingredients of a memorable rookie chase: an unmistakable team identity, room for the autograph, and a color that belongs with the uniform.

The broader release brings a 400-card base checklist, 100 rookies and new inserts including Madden 99 Club, Glass Canvas and Super Bowl at Night. Preorders open October 19 at 1 p.m. Eastern, according to Topps' release page. That is the preorder date; Topps has not announced the release date on that page.

The 400-card checklist makes room for 100 rookies

The official checklist separates the base run neatly: 300 veteran cards followed by rookies numbered 301–400. Love is No. 302, Caleb Downs is No. 328, Fernando Mendoza is No. 351, Jordyn Tyson is No. 369 and Carnell Tate is No. 396. The rookie group occupies a full quarter of the base set, with players across the field rather than just quarterbacks and receivers.

The veteran previews show what holds that large checklist together. Joe Burrow's Refractor uses a narrow orange team strip, a white frame with a stitch-like border and the Bengals logo at the lower left. His passing stance takes up most of the image. The design leaves the photograph doing the work, with the reflective surface providing the flash.

Davante Adams gets the same construction in Rams blue and yellow. His running photograph stretches almost from edge to edge, while the yellow stitched motif picks up the helmet and shoulder colors. Those team accents give the two cards distinct personalities even before a numbered color parallel enters the picture.

The autograph colors have a purpose

The autograph previews open up the lower half of that frame for blue ink. Jaxon Smith-Njigba's Green Refractor, shown as 02/99, is particularly effective: the outer green border echoes the bright accents in Seattle's uniform, while the photograph fades into white above the signature. The Seahawks logo and long nameplate remain easy to read beneath it.

Justin Jefferson's Purple Refractor is the most natural color pairing of the group. Purple surrounds his white Vikings jersey, with yellow stitching tying the frame back to Minnesota's colors. The preview is marked 18/75. The signature sits low enough to keep his face, helmet and football clear, giving the card two readable focal points.

Brock Purdy's Red Refractor pushes the signature even larger. Blue ink sweeps across the pale lower portion of the card beneath his red 49ers jersey, with a gold team strip along the left and 3/5 numbering near the bottom. Alongside Love's red rookie autograph, it shows why a well-matched parallel can be appealing for reasons that go beyond the serial number.

Madden 99 Club joins a crowded insert lineup

Madden 99 Club is a compact six-card group: Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, Ja'Marr Chase, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Trey McBride and Myles Garrett. The selection gives the set a different shape from a rookie-heavy chase, putting two quarterbacks alongside receivers, a tight end and a defensive star. McBride and Garrett broaden the small checklist beyond quarterbacks and wide receivers.

Glass Canvas has 25 cards and mixes generations. Its checklist includes Fernando Mendoza alongside Peyton Manning, Barry Sanders and Tom Brady. That makes it a potential meeting point for collectors of the new draft class and established football legends, rather than another rookie-only insert.

Returning Tecmo has 17 entries, with Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Christian Okoye, Jerry Rice and Sterling Sharpe among the named subjects. Joe Burrow, Drake Maye and Justin Jefferson bring current players into that company. Three checklist entries use the labels “QB Bills,” “QB Eagles” and “QB Browns”; those are the published card identities. The combination gives Tecmo an unusually strong older-football thread within this release.

Helix, Ultra Violet, Chrome Radiating Rookies, Game Genies and Kaiju also return. Topps groups these with the new designs under its Signature Short Prints lineup, but pack odds will be needed to compare how difficult the individual chases are.

Super Bowl at Night keeps its focus on two teams

Super Bowl at Night has 15 cards, all representing New England or Seattle. Seven are Patriots, including Drake Maye, TreVeyon Henderson and Christian Gonzalez; eight are Seahawks, including Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon.

That tight team focus is what separates it from the broader star selections elsewhere in Chrome. Hunter Henry, Robert Spillane, AJ Barner and Uchenna Nwosu share the checklist with the quarterbacks and lead receivers. For collectors of either team, it offers a more rounded group of players than a small league-wide superstar insert could accommodate.

Gold Shield adds another autograph route

Topps highlights NFL Honors Gold Shield Autographs among the release's signature content. The checklist names five subjects: Carson Schwesinger, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Myles Garrett, Matthew Stafford and Tetairoa McMillan. Schwesinger and McMillan give that small group a different complexion from the six-card Madden selection, while Smith-Njigba, Garrett and Stafford appear in both.

The Rookie Variation Autographs checklist also includes Love, Mendoza, Downs, Tyson and Tate. Love's red preview gives that family a strong first impression: the RC shield is clear at the upper right, and the autograph has enough white space to stand apart from the player image. The visual treatment makes the rookie designation, team colors and signature readable without crowding the card.

How the October 19 preorder is split

Topps will offer Hobby boxes, Jumbo boxes and Hobby cases through EQL. Hanger, Value and Mega boxes are assigned to direct purchase on Topps.com while supplies last. The release page says those configurations will become available at the same time.

Prices, pack counts and per-box autograph contents are not supplied on the current preview page. Those details will matter when comparing Hobby with Jumbo or the retail formats. For now, the October 19 preorder has a substantial checklist behind it—and the Love, Jefferson and Smith-Njigba previews make a persuasive case for paying attention to the colors as closely as the names.