- May 21, 2026
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As football players have gotten larger, their shoulder pads have gotten smaller.
And there are real questions about whether that's better.
David Ubben of The Athletic has posted an article that looks at the manner in which shoulder pads have pivoted from bulky to streamlined over the past few decades.
Smaller shoulder pads allow jerseys to be tighter. Players also believe smaller shoulder pads create greater mobility. Industry experts quoted by Ubben disagree.
“A lot of it is between the ears,” former Navy equipment manager and current Douglas Pads employee Kevin Bull told Ubben. “Kids wanted smaller because they felt they could move faster, but at the end of the day, that’s not true. But that’s what they thought."
The smaller pads may be resulting in more injuries. Ubben's article includes a February tweet from Mark Maske with quotes from NFL executive Jeff Miller raising the question of whether an increase in shoulder injuries relates to the size of the pads.
The optics helped drive the shift toward smaller shoulder pads and the unwillingness to go back to bigger ones. Nowadays, a player who would run out of the tunnel wearing Mike Alstott-style pads would look even more out of place than Ed McCaffrey did when he seemed to be wearing the shoulder pads from a child's Halloween costume.
Still, with the season likely to increase by another game sooner or later, there could be wisdom in enhancing protection through the extra reps — especially if the smaller shoulder pads don't really help the players with their mobility and agility.
And there are real questions about whether that's better.
David Ubben of The Athletic has posted an article that looks at the manner in which shoulder pads have pivoted from bulky to streamlined over the past few decades.
Smaller shoulder pads allow jerseys to be tighter. Players also believe smaller shoulder pads create greater mobility. Industry experts quoted by Ubben disagree.
“A lot of it is between the ears,” former Navy equipment manager and current Douglas Pads employee Kevin Bull told Ubben. “Kids wanted smaller because they felt they could move faster, but at the end of the day, that’s not true. But that’s what they thought."
The smaller pads may be resulting in more injuries. Ubben's article includes a February tweet from Mark Maske with quotes from NFL executive Jeff Miller raising the question of whether an increase in shoulder injuries relates to the size of the pads.
The optics helped drive the shift toward smaller shoulder pads and the unwillingness to go back to bigger ones. Nowadays, a player who would run out of the tunnel wearing Mike Alstott-style pads would look even more out of place than Ed McCaffrey did when he seemed to be wearing the shoulder pads from a child's Halloween costume.
Still, with the season likely to increase by another game sooner or later, there could be wisdom in enhancing protection through the extra reps — especially if the smaller shoulder pads don't really help the players with their mobility and agility.