As one of the most anticipated football sets in the hobby, collectors couldn't wait to get their hands on packs of 2023 Donruss football when it debuted in December 2023.
Along with the iconic "Rated Rookie" subset and "Downtown!" inserts, the rookie class in this set boasted some big names.
The hype for some of these guys was incredible...
Bijan Robinson, Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and several others carried huge expectations into their NFL debuts.
Time will tell if any of them end up in Canton.
But aside from chasing big-name rookies, collectors could find eye-popping inserts with incredible designs and autographed cards to keep the suspense alive.
Overall, the 2023 Donruss set delivered exactly what football collectors could expect.
And in this guide, we'll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let's jump right in!
2023 Donruss #149 Patrick Mahomes
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $35
The 2023 Kansas City Chiefs were an enigma.
They were also Super Bowl champs.
Patrick Mahomes and company banked on the NFL's #1 defense to reach 11 wins and an eighth consecutive AFC West title.
Never mind the struggles of a league-average offense and its thin receiving corps.
Pay no attention to Mahomes' career-worst interception total (14), quarterback rating (92.6), QBR (63.1), and success rate (48.2%).
Heck, don't even look at the fact that the Chiefs were underdogs in their final three postseason games, a first for their dynastic run.
What mattered was January.
Kansas City beatdown a shorthanded Miami squad before winning back-to-back-to-back one-score contests over Buffalo, Baltimore, and San Francisco in Super Bowl LVIII.
Mahomes returned to his Hall-of-Fame ways during that four-game stretch, completing nearly 70% of his passes with six touchdowns (against no interceptions).
He capped it with a legend-making walk-off OT touchdown throw and a third Super Bowl MVP award of the decade.
2023 Donruss #331 Jahmyr Gibbs Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $35
The Detroit Lions front office took some major heat in 2023 after reaching for Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th overall pick.
2023 was the height of NFL organizations' "running backs are replaceable" mentality.
Halfbacks had difficulty finding long-term deals or escaping franchise tags after monster seasons.
The prevailing logic was to seek value on running backs in later rounds, all things seemingly being equal.
There were added concerns about Gibbs' 5-foot-9, 199-pound frame and lack of contact power in the hole.
Many scouts wondered if he had the constitution or game to be a three-down back.
While he didn't materialize as a three-down workhorse in '23, Gibbs didn't need to.
He was the perfect lightning to David Montgomery's thunder, using his ample edge speed and big-play ability to add even more potency to the NFL's #3 offense.
He combined for 1,261 yards from scrimmage in his debut, landing a Pro Bowl nod with 945 rushing yards, 316 receiving yards, and 11 rushing/receiving touchdowns.
2023 Donruss #57 Joe Burrow
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the best young quarterbacks in the game, although his body has tried to revolt against him more often than not.
When healthy, Joe Burrow is a top-five quarterback and a perennial MVP candidate with improving arm strength and elite field awareness.
When Burrow gets settled in, the Cincinnati offense becomes a high-flying, aerial circus.
However, injuries have made it hard for him to do so.
Burrow tore his ACL during his 2020 rookie season, dislocated his pinky in 2021, and suffered an MCL sprain at the end of Super Bowl LVI.
In 2023, Burrow was held out early in the year with a right calf strain.
After rehabbing and getting on a roll, he was once again cut off, this time with a season ending wrist ligament tear.
"Whenever the injuries start to stack up, your football mortality kind of comes into the back of your mind," Burrow said.
The 27-year-old QB played just 10 games in '23 and didn't appear after Week 10 for the nine-win Bengals.
2023 Donruss #339 C.J. Stroud Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $30
It used to be that rookie quarterbacks sat with a clipboard in their hands in year one, maybe year two.
The prevailing thought was that immersion and observation were critical to future success.
Now, it's a whole different league.
There's no better example of that than C.J. Stroud's rookie season.
Selected second overall in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, Stroud wasted no time pulling the Houston Texans out of a three-year tailspin.
Just the fourth qualifying rookie quarterback in NFL history to post a quarterback rating of 100 or more (100.8), Stroud started his career with a record 192 passing attempts without an interception.
The 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie-of-the-Year amassed the third-most passing yards by a first-year player (4,108) and a league-best 1.0% interception percentage on 499 throws.
More importantly, the 22-year-old lifted a Houston franchise that won 11 total games from 2020 to 2022 to a 10-7 record, a division title, and a Wild Card Round demolition of the Cleveland Browns.
2023 Donruss #18 Lamar Jackson
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
It doesn't matter what you think of Lamar Jackson. His numbers and place in the history books speak for themselves.
Jackson navigated his Baltimore Ravens through one of the league's toughest schedules in 2023, leading the NFL with 26 touchdowns and 10 wins against teams with a .500 record or better.
Jackson shined the brightest when the Ravens were pressed most during the regular season.
While he didn't have a statistical output comparable to that of his 2019 MVP season, Jackson made up for it with clutch performance after clutch performance.
This included big-time Ws over the Miami Dolphins and eventual NFC champion San Francisco 49ers down the stretch.
Baltimore won six of their last seven and ten of their final twelve, vaulting Jackson clear of a congested awards field to his second MVP award.
Playoff failures or not, the former Louisville standout added to his Hall-of-Fame case by becoming the second-youngest two-time MVP (27 years old) in NFL history, trailing only the great Jim Brown, who won two before age 23.
2023 Donruss #32 Josh Allen
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
Though he didn't earn Pro Bowl honors to prove it, Josh Allen's 2023 NFL season was arguably as brilliant as any other.
Allen completed 385 of 579 passes for 4,306 yards and 29 touchdowns while racking up another 524 yards on the ground with an eye-popping, career-high 15 rushing touchdowns.
In his sixth season in Buffalo, Allen solidified his place as the face of the franchise, earning down-ballot votes for both MVP and Offensive Player of the Year.
Even better news for Bills fans: at 11-6, Allen and crew finished atop the AFC East for the fourth season in a row.
Unfortunately, the playoff heartbreak continued.
Buffalo's postseason run ended in the Divisional Round for the third consecutive time thanks to a tough 24-27 loss at home to Kansas City.
That also made it the third time in the last four years that Kansas City cut their playoff hopes short.
Little did Bills fans know it then, but Kansas City would break their hearts again in 2024.
As a perennial MVP candidate and a cornerstone of the Bills franchise, Josh Allen is operating in now-or-never mode from here on out.
2023 Donruss #244 Jalen Hurts
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
In hindsight, Jalen Hurts' crash landing to end the 2023 NFL season was only the prelude to better things.
At the time, though, Philadelphia's sudden nosedive from the league's best team to a playoff also-ran was a code-red disaster.
The Eagles opened the year with a 10-1 record, punctuating the start with a thrilling overtime win over the Buffalo Bills.
Little did anyone know that was the last real high point of the season.
Philadelphia lost five of its last six to lose control of the NFC East.
While a suddenly porous defense was the main reason the Eagles tumbled, Hurts also took some of the blame from a ticked-off fanbase.
Hurts threw five interceptions against five touchdowns in the team's final six games and was little more than a glorified game manager in a brutal 32-9 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs.
2024 would right the wrongs, but that didn't make the tumult of 2023 any less nauseating.
2023 Donruss #266 Brock Purdy
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
Brock Purdy came from nowhere in 2022, bypassing former third-overall pick Trey Lance on the depth chart to seize San Francisco's starting QB job.
The former "Mr. Irrelevant" went 7-1 as the replacement for veteran Jimmy Garoppolo, stopped only by a torn UCL during the 2022 NFC title game.
Many wondered if Purdy was a one-hit-wonder destined to return to backup status.
He silenced those doubters in 2023 with a resounding year, placing fourth for NFL MVP, sixth for Offensive Player of the Year, and earning his first Pro Bowl nod.
The 24-year-old went 12-4 as a starter during the regular season, completing 69.4% of his passes for 4,280 yards with 31 touchdowns against 11 interceptions.
He led all QBs in touchdown percentage (7.0%), yards per attempt (9.6), QB rating (113.0), and QBR (72.8).
Purdy carried it all over to January.
He completed 61.1% of his passes for 774 yards in three playoff contests, ushering San Francisco to an OT lead in Super Bowl LVIII before Patrick Mahomes' surgical season-ending TD toss to Mecole Hardman.
2023 Donruss #311 Bryce Young Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
As the number one pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, expectations were sky-high for Bryce Young during his rookie campaign for the Carolina Panthers.
But his rookie season didn't live up to the hype.
Young's 2,877 passing yards and 11 touchdowns combined with 253 rushing yards and zero touchdowns left something to be desired.
He also threw ten picks and fumbled eleven times.
His sophomore 2024 campaign didn't start much better.
After two weeks of not throwing any touchdowns, the Panthers benched him in favor of Andy Dalton from Week 3 through 7.
With the season going nowhere, the Panthers again put Young in as the starter in Week 8, where he remained the rest of the year.
It wasn't immediate, but Young did begin to show signs of higher-level play, finishing strongly with seven passing touchdowns and three more on the ground during the last three weeks.
That momentum was enough to bring this card back from the dead.
In PSA 10 condition, this card routinely sold for over $70 in early 2024.
But by November 2024, you could find it for less than $5.
We'll see where it goes from here.
2023 Donruss #357 Puka Nacua Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $25
176 guys were picked ahead of Puka Nacua in the 2023 NFL Draft. Besides C.J. Stroud, none of them shook the NFL like he did.
A virtual unknown out of BYU, Nacua was pegged by scouts as a depth receiver and potential special-teams standout.
His lack of straight-line speed and rigid route running made him an afterthought on many teams' draft boards.
Even the Rams didn't know quite what they had on their hands.
Yet, after a strong performance in a preseason win over the Los Angeles Chargers, head coach Sean McVay elevated Nacua to a starting role.
The rest played out like a dream.
Nacua started all 17 games for the playoff-bound Rams, setting rookie records for receptions (105) and receiving yards (1,486).
He posted five games of 100 receiving yards or more and snagged six touchdown catches for Los Angeles' top-ten passing offense.
Nacua's unlikely breakthrough earned him a Pro Bowl spot, a second-team All-Pro designation, and the runner-up spot behind C.J. Stroud for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
2023 Donruss #305 Bijan Robinson Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20
Former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith's perceived mishandling of rookie running back Bijan Robinson wasn't why he lost his job, but it didn't help.
Selected eighth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Robinson plugged a hole for a Falcons team desperate to extend and expand its offense.
His impact was immediate. Robinson rushed for nearly 1,000 yards (976) on 214 carries and finished fourth on the team in receiving yards (487).
The 21-year-old's 1,463 yards from scrimmage were over 50% more than any other skill-position player on the roster.
Still, many Falcons pundits and fans felt like Smith was holding Robinson back with repetitive game-planning and questionable workload decisions.
Robinson essentially split carries with Tyler Allgeier, even though Allgeier rushed for nearly a full yard less per carry (4.6 to 3.7).
The overall results were frustrating.
Robinson shined, but the rest of the offense looked listless with quarterbacks Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinecke under center.
Atlanta finished 7-10 for a third consecutive year under Smith, and the embattled coach was dismissed shortly after the season.
2023 Donruss #307 Zay Flowers Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20
Selected 22nd overall by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2023 NFL Draft, Boston College wideout Zay Flowers proved an immediate fit with soon-to-be NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.
With high-octane speed in space and a fierce competitive streak, Flowers became Jackson's favorite target.
The 23-year-old led all Ravens pass-catchers in receptions (77) and receiving yards (858).
His 108 targets were 44 more than the next-most prolific Ravers receiver (Odell Beckham Jr.).
Flowers gave Jackson a needed big-play threat that moved the chains consistently and diverted attention away from the quarterback's explosive rushing ability.
The Jackson/Flowers combo propelled Baltimore to sixth in total offense and the franchise's first conference title game since winning it all in 2012.
What got Flowers to the dance, though, ended up sending the Ravens home in the AFC title game.
He picked up a mind-bending 15-yard taunting flag to dull the impact of a 54-yard catch before fumbling away Baltimore's chances near the endzone a couple plays later.
Baltimore lost to Kansas City, 17-10, and Flowers shouldered most of the blame.
2023 Donruss #332 Sam LaPorta Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20
During his senior season at the University of Iowa, Sam LaPorta emerged as one of the top tight ends in the country.
And after the Buffalo Bills selected Dalton Kincaid with the 25th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions made LaPorta the second tight end off the board with the 34th pick.
Both had impressive rookie debuts.
But LaPorta's was better.
The rookie sensation recorded 86 receptions for 889 yards, averaging an impressive 10.3 yards per catch while finding the end zone ten times.
LaPorta's 86 receptions broke the NFL record for most receptions by a rookie tight end that Philadelphia's Keith Jackson set in 1988 when he hauled in 81 catches.
Incredibly, LaPorta's record only stood for a year.
Brock Bowers destroyed the mark when he caught 112 passes in 2024.
Still, LaPorta's performance was impressive enough for a first trip to the Pro Bowl, Second-Team All-Pro honors, and a third-place finish in the Offensive Rookie of the Year vote.
2023 Donruss #334 Jayden Reed Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20
After two years of backup work behind future Hall-of-Famer Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love finally got his shot.
He made it count, leading the new-look Packers to a fourth playoff appearance in five years.
Love's connection with rookie receiver Jaydren Reed had much to do with it.
Selected in the second round out of Michigan State in the 2023 Draft, Reed topped a young and hungry Packers receiving corps in yards (793) and tied Romeo Doubs for the team lead in receiving touchdowns (8).
Reed also rushed 11 times on gadget plays and other designed formations, amassing 119 yards and two scores.
His 912 yards from scrimmage and ten receiving/rushing touchdowns paced the squad.
The Love/Reed connection came up huge late in the year, leading Green Bay on a three-game season-closing win streak to seal a wild-card berth.
The numbers didn't add up in the playoffs, but it remained a statement of intent for a retooled Packers offense on the rise.
2023 Donruss #368 Jordan Addison Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Value: $20
Puka Nacua's rookie season was the talk of the football world, and rightfully so.
However, he wasn't the only first-year wide receiver to make a historic impact in 2023.
Picked 23rd in the 2023 Draft, Minnesota Vikings rookie Jordan Addison missed nearly all of the team's spring workouts due to injury.
He was behind the eight ball to start, and you'd be forgiven to think that it would show in his production during the 2023 campaign.
Instead, Addison balled out and looked well at home next to superstar teammate Justin Jefferson.
Whether it was Kirk Cousins or any of the other three quarterbacks who started for the Vikes, Addison made the most of their talents and produced at a level few rookies have.
Addison is one of just four players in the modern NFL to record at least 70 receptions (70), 900 receiving yards (911), and ten receiving touchdowns (10) in a debut season.
2023 Donruss Football Cards In Review
If Bryce Young keeps the momentum going, collector's might turn their attention back to this set in larger numbers.
But, for now, the rookie cards for Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, Puka Nacua, C.J. Stroud, and some of the other young superstars should keep demand steady.
Many of those guys are off to outstanding careers, and that's always a good sign for any product in this hobby.
And as I mentioned in the opener, inserts like the ever-popular "Downtown!" as well as autograph and relic cards are more than enough to draw collector attention.
Between all the parallels, inserts, autographs, etc. there is just so much going on with this set that it's almost overwhelming.
I really enjoy this set and think it should have some staying power for years to come.