Add new comment

The game has fundamentally changed in a measurable way.
In the history of the NFL there have been 110 performances of more than 4000 yards passing in a single season. 21 of them have come in the last 2 seasons since the new rules protecting receivers... Let that sink in for a moment
We are now in the " player safety era" in the NFL. The impact of the rule changes to football are every bit as big as lowering the mound was to baseball. It used to be a benchmark of the elites to get within a thousand yards of Marino's record, now it appears we can expect the top 3-5 qb's to make a run at 5000 every year.
We are right now at the genesis of establishing new statistical baselines for what it means to be a good quarterback or a good passing defense and it will take several more years for it all to shake out so we can actually make any sense of it.
One thing IS absolutely certain though, you can't compare numbers from pre rule change to post rule change, it's apples to oranges.
Matthew