Over the last 2 seasons, it has seemed like Quarterback play around the NFL has been declining on average for the first time since I have been watching in the late 2000s. This isn't to say that there aren't any great QBs in the league, but I feel like just from the eye test, I can't remember watching so much incompetent QB play. The numbers on league average back it up as well as I've compared 2022 and 2023 (Thru Week 10) to the 4 years prior.
2018: 237.8 Yd 1.7 TD 0.8 Int 92.9 Pass Rtg 6.3 ANY/A
2019: 235.0 Yd 1.6 TD 0.8 Int 90.4 Pass Rtg 6.2 ANY/A
2020: 240.2 Yd 1.7 TD 0.8 Int 93.6 Pass Rtg 6.4 ANY/A
2021: 228.3 Yd 1.5 TD 0.8 Int 90.8 Pass Rtg 6.1 ANY/A
2022: 218.5 Yd 1.4 TD 0.8 Int 89.1 Pass Rtg 5.9 ANY/A
2023: 221.0 Yd 1.4 TD 0.8 Int 88.8 Pass Rtg 5.8 ANY/A
It's just fascinating to me because I feel like the rules have never made it easier to be a QB than now.
I'm interested to hear firstly do people agree with this? And secondly what are the biggest reasons for this decline?
Am I reading too much into a small sample size and it's an anomaly or is there more to it?
I think it should be noted that offenses league wide have seen a massive spike in rushing production relative to the rest of their offensive production, largely because over the last few years there was a proliferation of two high shells on defense that took away explosive plays and opened up the run game and blah blah blah
This though even took a step back this year, lots of teams moved away from that Fangio style of defense because they were fed up from being punched in the mouth every game and moved to aggressive DCs, and have seen massive improvements (Schwartz and Flores chief among them). Rushing has actually gone back down after a several year increase (last season it was as high as it’s been in like 35 years), along with everything else.
Really, this season is gonna be remembered to me as the year defenses caught up. I don’t think this is an aberration, I think the NFL is going to be much different and more dynamic on both sides of the ball from this point in with the rise of analytics and a younger breed of coaches