Tag Archives: panini contenders 2018

Coutee, Keke

Card: Panini Contenders 2018
Acquired: 2019, EBay

At Texas Tech, Keke Coutee posted stellar stats in his Junior year catching 93 passes for 1,429 yards and 10 touchdowns while seeing punt return duty on special teams. He declared for the 2018 NFL Draft, and was selected by the Houston Texans in the 4th round.

Keke’s debut was derailed by persistent hamstring issues which lingered into the regular season. He’d finally make his debut during a week 3 contest against the Indianapolis Colts. Coutee played a key role in the team’s overtime win, contributing an NFL and franchise single game debut record with 11 receptions, however injuries throughout the season hampered his production. Keke finished his rookie season with 28 catches for 287 yards and a TD playing primarily out of the slot. Although the Texans fell flat during the post season, Coutee caught 11 more passes for 110 yards and a TD.

In 2019 it was thought that Keke would finally be that missing piece of the Houston offense, but after landing OT Laremy Tunsil and WR Kenny Stills, Keke had to fight for playing time. Still Keke came along starting 4 games and catching 22 passes for 254 yards and a 54 yard long.

With a very limited budget and some declining market value I was able to snipe out this nice card of Keke, at about 25% of the going price I saw it at over the past few months. This set has really grown on me over the last year or two. It has a concise group of college legends and some promising rookies. The design on this card is pretty nice and Keke’s autograph isn’t bad looking at all.

Hill, Khalid ‘The hammering panda’

Card: Panini Contenders Draft Picks 2018
Acquired: 2019, Box Breaker

Khalid Hill played tight end and fullback for Michigan from 2014-2017. In 2016, Hill made the switch to FB fulltime and was used in short yardage goal line situations. He scored 10 touchdowns on 25 carries, and 3 touchdowns on 16 receptions- leading the Wolverines. Like many fullbacks in the NFL these days- Khalid went undrafted in 2018. He was signed as an free agent by the Seattle Seahawks, but a nagging injury ended his season with the team.

Khalid has been spotted a few times around Ann Arbor, working out and preparing for another shot with an NFL team. He’s also rooting for the Wolverines and has been taking in practice when he can.

Foreman, D’Onta (2)

Cards: Panini Contenders 2018, Panini Elite 2017 (08/35), Panini XR Jumbo Materials 2017 (20/49), Panini Prestige 2018, Panini Contenders 2018, Panini Luminance 2018 (018/225), Panini Prestige 2018, Score 2017, Donruss Rookie Phenom 2017, Panini Contenders 2017 Draft Picks
Acquired: EBay 2019, IP 2019, Coop Spring Game Kickoff, Chuck E Cheese, IP 2020, Reliable Automotive Grand Opening Kyle, Tx.
See Also: D’Onta Foreman

I had been dying to get D’onta on a few more cards because not only was he a Longhorn, he was a Houston Texan to boot- with quite a few nice cards. When I heard he was going to be in attendance at the Coop Spring Game Kickoff as part of a triple header with Lil Jordan Humphrey and Charles Omenihu, I knew I had to go. Foreman rarely appears in Austin. I mean why should he really when H-Town is his burg?

Anyway, Foreman has a beautiful signature. He was quite accommodating in person asking me about placement and color on the Jumbo Materials card. I told him to just ink it up. It didn’t matter to me if he got it all over the swatch. That to me made it more authentic. He looks really good. I mean he did get in and play last season despite his devastating injury his rookie season.

As the year wore on I had hoped the team would use him as a secret weapon to Lamar Miller, but D’onta saw limited reps, primarily against the Eagles. He did catch two passes for 28 yards and a TD however. With Alfred Blue finally shipped out to parts unknown (Jacksonville actually), it looked like D’onta would finally step up into the primary backup role behind Lamar Miller in 2019, but the Texans decided to completely reboot at the runningback position.

D’onta ended up getting cut, and eventually signed with the Indianapolis Colts, but later was placed on IR after he tore his biceps, and then subsequently received an injury settlement. Currently Foreman is a free agent.

I then got D’Onta later at a Chuck E Cheese of all places on his Panini Select and the Luminance cards. He was ‘fashionably late’ to the event and despite the decently sized line, he was more than happy to sign these two cards for me. I really like the framing of the Select card, and it has a really nice polish to it. The Luminance card has a slight metal tinge to it, reminiscent of those first few years of Playoff back in the early 90s. While I am not a fan of script typefaces, this one pulls it off nicely.

After not being able to attend an XFL game I really wanted to go to, I reloaded and decided to attend a signing in Kyle that featured Ricky Williams, D’Onta Foreman, Marcus Johnson, and Fozzy Whittaker. I got there plenty early. The crown jewel was this Panini Contenders dual card with Ricky and D’Onta that I got signed. Initially it was in doubt that Ricky would show up. Then it was in doubt that Foreman would show up because he was late. Still I managed to get all the cards signed I wanted to.

My friend Mark, who I meet at some of these events, tossed me a few extras he had of Foreman to get signed. I got scared off because D’Onta looked like he wasn’t in a great mood to sign. I had to badger him to sign the Score 17 card, but Mark sent his kids up and got the Panini cards signed for me to close out the lot.

We all got extremely lucky, as this is the last in person event happened, occurring the weekend before the COVID shutdown affected everybody statewide.